Long-necked Jar (hu) | Harvard Art Museums

Gallery Text

By the Eastern Han period (when the Han capital was located in present-day Luoyang, Henan province), Chinese potters had discovered the efficacy of using lead-fluxed glazes for their ceramic burial wares. As a fluxing agent, lead oxide lowers the melting point of a glaze, reducing the amount of fuel required for firing. Copper and iron metal oxides were added to the glaze to impart the green and brown colors reminiscent of bronzes with different patinas; they were thus especially useful for glazing ceramic wares that imitated more expensive bronze ritual vessels. The decorative elements on these objects—mystical mountains with swirling clouds, mythical beasts, immortal figures, and bear-form supports—are associated with cosmological realms of immortals and closely replicate the relief ornamentation on sumptuous Han bronzes. Although the tombs of the most wealthy and important Han personages continued to be furnished luxuriously, ceramic reproductions of expensive burial goods and tomb sculptures representing animals, servants, and entertainers became acceptable substitutes for real objects and living creatures.

Identification and Creation

Object Number: 2006.170.190
Title: Long-necked Jar (hu)
Other Titles: Original Language Title: 西漢绿釉陶壺
Classification: Vessels
Work Type: vessel
Date: 1st century BCE-early 1st century CE
Places: Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period: Han dynasty, Western Han period, 206 BCE-9 CE
Culture: Chinese
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/195611

Location

Location: Level 1, Room 1600, Early Chinese Art, Arts of Ancient China from the Bronze Age to the Golden Age

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Physical Descriptions

Medium: Earthenware with green lead glaze
Technique: Lead glaze
Dimensions: H. 45 x Diam. 35 cm (17 11/16 x 13 3/4 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History: [Berwald Oriental Art, London, November 1998] sold; to Walter C. Sedgwick Foundation, Woodside, CA (1998-2006), partial gift; to Harvard University Art Museums, 2006.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line: Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Partial gift of the Walter C. Sedgwick Foundation and partial purchase through the Alpheus Hyatt Purchasing Fund
Accession Year: 2006
Object Number: 2006.170.190
Division: Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact: am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Description: Jar with waisted cylindrical neck, globular body, and small flat, circular base, the body decorated with a molded frieze of hunting scenes including felines, boar, deer, and equestrians with bows and arrows amid waves and swirling clouds, and with two simulated pushou-mask ring-handles; red earthenware with lead-fluxed emerald-green glaze over molded decoration on the exterior; interior and base unglazed.
Commentary: Compare to:
(1) Green lead-glazed earthenware jar of closely related form with similar decoration excavated in 1956 from a late Western Han brick tomb near Hansenzhai village, Xi’an, Shaanxi province. See Wenwu [Cultural Relics] 5 (1960): 72, pl. 5.
(2) Very similar green-glazed jar hu of closely related form and size excavated in 1978 in Luoyang, Henan province. See Grace Wong, ed., Treasures from the Han (Singapore: Empress Place Museum, 1990), 95.

Exhibition History

32Q: 1600 Early China II, Harvard Art Museums, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

Sedgwick Collection

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

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2006.170.190: Long-necked Jar (hu)