The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 1, 2023

Relief with Dragon from a Funerary Stove Model

陶炉上的 龍紋

202 BC–AD 220

China, from a tomb in Xi'an, Shanxi province, Han dynasty

(202 BC-AD 220)

Earthenware with relief decoration

Overall: 10 x 27.7 x 1.4 cm (3 15/16 x 10 7/8 x 9/16 in.)

Charles W. Harkness Endowment Fund 1925.138

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

Han dynasty tombs were often furnished with grave goods to provide the deceased with items for the afterlife.

Description

Han dynasty tombs were often furnished with grave goods to provide the deceased with items for the afterlife. This panel with a dragon was part of a miniature pottery stove to be placed in a burial chamber. The dragon is an auspicious creature and an animal of the cardinal directions that protects the east.

Provenance
?-1925
(C.T. Loo 盧芹齋 [1880-1957], Paris and New York, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1925-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Whiting, Frederic Allen. “The Bequests of Mary Warden Harkness: A Tribute and an Accounting.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 15, no. 2, 1928, pp. 43–50. Mentioned: p. 50 www.jstor.org
Cox, Warren E. The Book of Pottery and Porcelain. New York: L. Lee and Shepard Co.; distributed by Crown Publishers, 1944. Reproduced: vol. I, pl. 19
Trubner, Henry. Chinese Ceramics from the Prehistoric Period Through Ch'ien Lung; A Loan Exhibition from Collections in America and Japan. March 14 to April 27, 1952. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum, 1952. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 55, fig. 42:5
Wilson, J. Keith. “Powerful Form and Potent Symbol: The Dragon in Asia.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 77, no. 8, 1990, pp. 286–323. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 301, cat. no. 25, fig. 19 www.jstor.org
Exhibition history

From Caves to Tombs: Chinese Pictorial Rubbings from Stone Reliefs (Chinese art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 11-November 14, 2021).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1925.138