Tomb Brick
CultureChinese
DateEastern Han dynasty (25-220 C.E.)
MediumEarthenware
DimensionsOverall: 15 3/4 × 8 × 27 3/4 inches (40.01 × 20.32 × 70.49 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number35-287/5
On View
On viewGallery Location
- 231
Collections
DescriptionRectangular tile in form of a wall with sloping tiled roof; stag's head in high relief. Ground of stamped designs with squares, rectangles, and circles with figures of horses, horsemen, chariots, T'ao T'ieh, and leaf motifs.Gallery LabelThis large brick would have been part of the upper wall of a tomb. Its top imitates the sloping, tiled roofs of real architecture, and its front is decorated with auspicious motifs: a deer head, perhaps signifying longevity, coins denoting wealth, protective monster masks and figures riding horses and in carriages.
Purchased through Lawrence Sickman by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1935.
Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 2, Art of the Orient, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 27 (repro.).
Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 302 (repro.).
Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 305 (repro.).
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Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 C.E.)
34-148/2 A,B
