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Watchtower
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
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.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineWatchtower, 25–220 CE. China, Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE). Earthenware with lead glaze; diameter: 39 cm (15 3/8 in.); overall: 54.3 cm (21 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund, 1989.71
