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Granary (Cang)

A work made of brick-red earthenware with green lead glaze, carved and molded decoration.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of brick-red earthenware with green lead glaze, carved and molded decoration.

Date:

Eastern Han dynasty (A.D. 25–220)

Artist:

China, probably Henan province

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. The granary, used to store millet, barley, and wheat, was depicted either as a jar or as a small building. The two-story granary found in southern Chinese tombs of the Western Han dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 9) was a wood or ceramic model elevated on stilts. By the Eastern Han dynasty, this rectangular structure had spread to northern China and was raised on legs that were formed as crouching bears, a convention common to Han art. The inscription painted on the door of this granary states that it was made for the tomb of a local official.

Status

On View, Gallery 133

Department

Arts of Asia

Title

Granary (Cang)

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

Brick-red earthenware with green lead glaze, carved and molded decoration

Dimensions

39.5 × 24 × 21.5 cm (15 9/16 × 9 7/16 × 8 7/16 in.)

Credit Line

Lucy Maud Buckingham Collection

Reference Number

1924.238

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.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/12065/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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