Watchtower
25–220
- Medium
- earthenware with lead glaze
- Dimensions
- Diameter: 39 cm (15 3/8 in.); Overall: 54.3 cm (21 3/8 in.)
- Genre
- Ceramic
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Styles
Tags
China, Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE)
About
In this funerary sculpture of the watchtower is a lively retinue of hunters, musicians, dancers, and domestic animals. The representation provides a vivid picture of the worldly enjoyment to be perpetuated in the otherworldly realm of the afterlife. A low-temperature lead glaze is applied to its earthenware body, enhancing the modeled forms with a brilliant, smooth coating like a layer of opaque glass.