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An earthenware vessel that stands on three small feet. The body is a cylindrical shape with a round, pointed lid. The sides are painted red with a purple swirling pattern. The lid is grey with a purple and green painted organic and floral carving.

An earthenware vessel that stands on three small feet upright on a faded blue background. The body is a cylindrical shape with a round, pointed lid. The sides are painted red with a purple swirling pattern outlined with a thin white line. There is also a grey stripe at the bottom, middle, and top lip. The lid is grey with a purple and green painted organic and floral carving. The pattern has tiny, white flowers, a thick purple shape, and the very top has a purple flower with a red center. The short, rounded legs are grey.

Gallery Text

Bronze and lacquer ritual vessels were expensive commodities that only the privileged class could afford, but in the Han dynasty, ceramic funerary wares that simulated these luxurious vessels became a more affordable means of outfitting one’s tomb, as a finished ceramic piece required far less fuel and specialized labor than a bronze or lacquer. The earthenware ceramics on display here date to the Western Han period (when the capital was located in modern-day Xi’an, Shaanxi province) and imitated ritual vessels with painted-lacquer decoration. Fired at relatively low temperatures, earthenware vessels are not fully vitrified and are slightly porous, making them less than ideal as containers for daily use, but suitable as burial items. Few colored compounds can withstand kiln temperatures without alteration; in order to replicate the multiple bright colors and dynamic designs of painted lacquers, mineral pigments were applied to earthenware vessels after firing and are hence “cold-painted.”

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2006.170.175.A-B
Title
Cylindrical tripod vessel (lian) with conical lid
Other Titles
Original Language Title: 西漢 彩繪陶奩
Classification
Vessels
Work Type
vessel
Date
2nd-1st century BCE
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period
Han dynasty, Western Han period, 206 BCE-9 CE
Culture
Chinese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/176967

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
Gray earthenware with cold-painted pigments
Dimensions
H. 23.5 x W. 22 x Diam. 19.9 cm (9 1/4 x 8 11/16 x 7 13/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[J. J. Lally & Co., New York, June 2000] sold; to Walter C. Sedgwick Foundation, Woodside, CA (2000-2006), 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 Louise Haskell Daly Fund
Accession Year
2006
Object Number
2006.170.175.A-B
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Description
Cylindrical vessel with three cabriole legs and conical lid in the form of a mountain peak; the vessel with painted decoration of swirling cloud scrolls, the lid with decoration of mythical creatures surrounding a floral peak; light gray earthenware with decoration cold-painted in polychrome pigments, the container with designs painted in white, red and purple; the lid with decoration painted in white, green, red, pink, purple, and black.

Publication History

  • Julie Wertz, Georgina Rayner, Katherine Eremin, Susan Costello, Angela Chang, and Melissa Moy, "Material investigation of cold-painted funerary ceramics from the Han dynasty", ICOM-CC 19th Triennial Conference (Beijing, 2021), pp. 1-10, pp. 1, 6, figs. 1.5, 6
  • Julie Wertz, Georgina Rayner, Katherine Eremin, Susan Costello, Angela Chang, and Melissa Moy, Material investigation of cold-painted Han dynasty funerary ceramics, ICOM-CC 19th Triennial Conference Preprints, ICOM-CC (https://www.icom-cc-publications-online.org/4263/Material-investigation-of-cold-painted-funerary-ceramics-of-the-Han-dynasty, May 2021), Figure 1, Page 1; Figure 6, Page 6

Exhibition History

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

Subjects and Contexts

  • Sedgwick Collection

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