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Pilgrim Flask

A work made of earthenware with three-color (sancai) lead glazes.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of earthenware with three-color (sancai) lead glazes.

Date:

Tang dynasty (618–907), first half of 8th century

Artist:

China

About this artwork

Trans-Asiatic trade expanded the Chinese repertoire of simple, wheel-thrown clay shapes to include composite forms pressed in molds. This pilgrim flask—a vessel shape that may imitate forms originally made in glass, leather, or metalwork —depicts a young boy adorned with a billowing scarf, who dances with a lion. Although similar images can be traced back to Hellenistic Greece (c. 300-200 B.C.), the extent of such Classical influence on the much later art of Tang dynasty China has yet to be determined.

This vessel displays a fluid “three-color” (sancai) glaze, named after the archetypical combination of bright green, amber, and white (transparent) lead-rich glazes that have been colored with carefully measured recipes of metallic oxides. The green derives from copper and the amber from iron.

Status

On View, Gallery 105

Department

Arts of Asia

Title

Pilgrim Flask

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.

701 CE–750 CE

Medium

Earthenware with three-color (sancai) lead glazes

Dimensions

19.2 × 15.5 × 14.5 cm (7 5/8 × 6 1/8 × 5 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Bequest of Henry C. Schwab

Reference Number

1941.623

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/42271/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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