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A cold-painted vessel with a square foot, a widely curved body, and a square top with a pointed lid. The base color is black with a swirling pattern on it that is colored light blue, yellow, and purple. There is white along the top lip.

A cold-painted vessel standing upright on a grey background. It has a square foot and a widely curved body with four corners which slopes to a square top with a low, pointed lid. The base color is black with a swirling pattern that is colored light blue, yellow, and purple throughout. The swirling pattern is thinly outlined with white. There are long, narrow light blue triangles along the top lip that point down with a black detail in them. There is a thick white line along the top lip and lid. The very top of the lid has the same swirling pattern.

Gallery Text

Bronze and lacquer ritual vessels were expensive commodities that only the privileged class could afford, but in the Han dynasty, ceramic funerary wares that simulated these luxurious vessels became a more affordable means of outfitting one’s tomb, as a finished ceramic piece required far less fuel and specialized labor than a bronze or lacquer. The earthenware ceramics on display here date to the Western Han period (when the capital was located in modern-day Xi’an, Shaanxi province) and imitated ritual vessels with painted-lacquer decoration. Fired at relatively low temperatures, earthenware vessels are not fully vitrified and are slightly porous, making them less than ideal as containers for daily use, but suitable as burial items. Few colored compounds can withstand kiln temperatures without alteration; in order to replicate the multiple bright colors and dynamic designs of painted lacquers, mineral pigments were applied to earthenware vessels after firing and are hence “cold-painted.”

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1990.85
Title
Covered Square 'Fanghu' Storage Jar with Scrolling-Cloud Decor and Simulated Ring-Mask Handles
Classification
Vessels
Work Type
vessel
Date
perhaps reign of Wudi, 141 BCE - 87 BCE
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period
Han dynasty, Western Han period, 206 BCE-9 CE
Culture
Chinese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/200764

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
Cold-painted funerary ware: light gray earthenware with decoration cold-painted in polychrome pigments on a blackened ground
Dimensions
including cover: H. 55.1 x W. 22.2 x D. 22.2 cm (21 11/16 x 8 3/4 x 8 3/4 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[J. J. Lally & Co., New York, 1990], sold; to Harvard University Art Museums, 1990.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Ernest B. and Helen Pratt Dane Fund for Asian Art
Accession Year
1990
Object Number
1990.85
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Exhibition History

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

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

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