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Top Story of a Tower (Tomb Model)

A work made of earthenware with green lead glaze.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of earthenware with green lead glaze.

Date:

Eastern Han dynasty (A.D.25–220)

Artist:

China

About this artwork

As burial practices filtered down from the Han aristocracy to officials and landowners, tomb models related to farming, an honored occupation, became increasingly popular. These models provide rough but lively impressions of rural compounds. The granary, used to store millet, barley, and wheat, was depicted either as a jar or as a small building. This building combines realistic and imaginative details: angular brackets support a tiled roof with ridgepoles and roundels and crowned with an oversize bird and floral roof ends.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Arts of Asia

Title

Top Story of a Tower (Tomb Model)

Place

China (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

25 CE–220 CE

Medium

Earthenware with green lead glaze

Dimensions

44.5 × 37.5 × 38 cm (17 1/2 × 14 3/4 × 14 15/16 in.)

Credit Line

Lucy Maud Buckingham Collection

Reference Number

1924.227

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/12028/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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