Casing Slab of a Tomb Chamber

CultureChinese

DateEastern Han dynasty (25-220 C.E.)

MediumLimestone

DimensionsOverall: 39 × 24 1/4 × 4 inches (99.06 × 61.6 × 10.16 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number34-73

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

East Asian Art

Terms

DescriptionStone carved in relief in three panels. The top panel shows two horses and tumblers, the middle shows a dancer and a musician, and the bottom shows two horses with riders.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Arts of the Han Dynasty, Asia House, NY, February 7 – March 26, 1961, p23, no.1.

Gallery Label

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, stone slabs often replaced brick as the favored architectural material for tombs. Reliefs carved on the stones often depict mythological scenes or the life of the elite. The upper register depicts a winged deer and a winged horse with a figure about to mount it. Above these are a running tiger and winged falling figure, possibly an acrobat. The middle scene shows a dancer and a musician playing the qin zither, and the lower register depicts two riders, probably officials.

Provenance

Purchased through Laurence Sickman by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1934.

Published References

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959): 182 (repro.).

Archives of the Chinese Art Society of America, xiv, (New York: Chinese Art Society of America, 1960).

Arts of the Han Dynasty, Asia House, (New York: The Society, 1961), 23, no.1 (repro.).

The Connoisseur, American ed., June 1961, 306 (repro.).

Oriental Art, v. 8, no. 1, (1962), 22, fig.4 (repro.).

Editorial, “The Lure of Ancient China” Apollo. March 1973, Vol. XCVII, no. 133, special issue for the Asian art collection in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

Bradley Smith and Wan-go Weng, China: A History in Art (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1979), 86.

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.

Gloria B. Strauss, “The Art of the Sleeve in Chinese Dance”, Dance Perspectives, Fall, vol. 16 (New York: 1975) 27, fig. 11 (repro.).

Université de Paris, Centre détudes sinologiques, Corpus des Pierres Sculptées/ Han dai hua xiang quan ji, vol. 1, (Beijing: Bali da xue Beijing Han xue yan jiu suo, 1950-51), p78, pl. 100 (repro.).

Olaf Jansé, Briques et Objets Céramiques de l’époque Han appurtenant à C. T. Loo, (Paris: 1936), pls. xxxi – xxxii, (repro.).

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