Artwork Page for Hollow Tile: Column from Tomb-Chamber Doorway

Details / Information for Hollow Tile: Column from Tomb-Chamber Doorway

Hollow Tile: Column from Tomb-Chamber Doorway

100–200 CE

China, Han dynasty

(202 BCE–220 CE)
Medium
earthenware, die-stamped relief
Measurements
Overall: 113.7 x 18.4 cm (44 3/4 x 7 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph King 1915.68
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

Striding tigers (top), racing horsemen (right column), and reverent officials (left column) are stamped into the surface of this underground portal to a tomb. The doorway preserves in stone the post-and-lintel structure, a basic element of Chinese wooden architecture. By the first century AD, a revolution in Chinese tomb construction and furnishing had taken place. Tombs lined with decorated bricks and tiles replace the earlier tombs constructed with only rammed earth-walls. Ceramic surrogates or models of stoves, houses, servants, and pets filled these more durable chambers, symbolically extending the creature comforts of this world into the world after death.
A rectangular earthenware pillar features die-stamped reliefs in repeating vertical bands. Slanted lines edge the left, while the center depicts stacked figures in long robes. Adjacent rows showcase swirling scroll patterns. Muted light brown with a weathered texture, the column extends rightward at its top and base. Chipped edges contrast orderly impressions that layer the surface, transitioning from intricate carvings to smooth, square corners at its extremities.

Hollow Tile: Column from Tomb-Chamber Doorway

100–200 CE

China, Han dynasty (202 BCE–220 CE)

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