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Gallery Text

By the Eastern Han period (when the Han capital was located in present-day Luoyang, Henan province), Chinese potters had discovered the efficacy of using lead-fluxed glazes for their ceramic burial wares. As a fluxing agent, lead oxide lowers the melting point of a glaze, reducing the amount of fuel required for firing. Copper and iron metal oxides were added to the glaze to impart the green and brown colors reminiscent of bronzes with different patinas; they were thus especially useful for glazing ceramic wares that imitated more expensive bronze ritual vessels. The decorative elements on these objects—mystical mountains with swirling clouds, mythical beasts, immortal figures, and bear-form supports—are associated with cosmological realms of immortals and closely replicate the relief ornamentation on sumptuous Han bronzes. Although the tombs of the most wealthy and important Han personages continued to be furnished luxuriously, ceramic reproductions of expensive burial goods and tomb sculptures representing animals, servants, and entertainers became acceptable substitutes for real objects and living creatures.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2006.170.196.A-B
Title
Cylindrical tripod vessel (lian) with conical lid
Other Titles
Original Language Title: 西漢 绿釉陶奩
Classification
Vessels
Work Type
vessel
Date
1st century BCE-early 1st century CE
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period
Han dynasty, Western Han period, 206 BCE-9 CE
Culture
Chinese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/174177

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1600, Early Chinese Art, Arts of Ancient China from the Bronze Age to the Golden Age
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Physical Descriptions

Medium
Earthenware with green lead glaze
Technique
Lead glaze
Dimensions
H. 25.8 x Diam. 20 cm (10 3/16 x 7 7/8 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[The Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, May 2001] sold; to Walter C. Sedgwick Foundation, Woodside, CA (2001-2006), partial gift; to Harvard University Art Museums, 2006.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Partial gift of the Walter C. Sedgwick Foundation and partial purchase through the Alpheus Hyatt Purchasing Fund
Accession Year
2006
Object Number
2006.170.196.A-B
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
Cylindrical tripod vessel with legs in the form of crouching bears and a conical lid in the form of a multi-peaked mountain; decoration of hunters pursuing animals on the vessel sides and amid the mountain peaks; red earthenware with lead-fluxed, emerald-green glaze over molded decoration; the underside of the vessel and cover with some glaze overflow. One of a set of eight funerary vessels (2006.170.192-199).
Commentary
Compare to:
(1) Green lead-glazed wine vessel of very similar form and decoration excavated in 1983 from a Han site at Doudian, Xianyang, Shaanxi province, now in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology collection, Beijing. See Treasures from a Swallow Garden: Inaugural Exhibit of the Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology (Beijing: Peking University, 1992), cat. 116, pp. 224-25.
(2) Yellow-green lead-glazed wine vessel of same form with virtually identical decoration excavated in 2004 from a late Western Han brick tomb near in Xi’an, Shaanxi province. See Wenwu [Cultural Relics] 10 (2012): cover image.
(3) Green lead-glazed wine vessel of same form with very similar decoration excavated in 1956 from a late Western Han dynasty brick tomb near Hansenzhai village, Xi’an, Shaanxi province. See Wenwu [Cultural Relics] 5 (1960): 72, pl. 4.

Exhibition History

  • 32Q: 1600 Early China II, Harvard Art Museums, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Sedgwick Collection

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu