Standing figure

This small, finely detailed figure stands with arms held out. His curling fingers form a socket that would have held the shank of an oil lamp. The figure wears a long tunic gathered at the waist by a plain belt secured by a belt hook. The skirt, sleeves, shoulders, and lapels of the costume have been inlaid with gold line decoration and cast with border motifs. The hair is carefully dressed and partially covered by a close-fitting headdress with a double-lobed crest in the center. Human figures in bronze were rare throughout the Shang and Western Zhou dynasties (1600–771 BCE), but several bronze figures that served as lamp standards have now been excavated from Warring States–period tombs of the late Zhou era. The strong, sculptural quality of this figure anticipates the naturalism encountered in the succeeding Qin (221–206 BCE) and Western Han (206 BCE–25 CE) eras.