The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of October 2, 2023

Watchtower

AD 25–220

China, Eastern Han dynasty

(AD 25-220)

Earthenware with lead glaze

Diameter: 39 cm (15 3/8 in.); Overall: 54.3 cm (21 3/8 in.)

The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 1989.71

Location

241B Arts of Ancient China

Description

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.

Provenance
?–1989
(London Gallery, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1989–
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Reproduced: p. 15 archive.org
Wilson, J. Keith. "Notable Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 3 (1991): 63-147. Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 127 www.jstor.org
Wilson, J. Keith, and Anne E. Wardwell. "New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 8 (1994): 270-347. Reproduced: p. 306; Mentioned: p. 303-07; 347 www.jstor.org
Exhibition history

Notable Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 15, 1991).

Asian Autumn: New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 18-December 31, 1994).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1989.71