Court Lady with Tall Headdress: Tomb Figurine (c. 700–750): Art, History and Details

Court Lady with Tall Headdress: Tomb Figurine (c. 700–750) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

There was prosperity and flourishing culture in the Tang dynasty. Their capital was at Chang’an, which is present-day Xi’an. There was great interaction with other cultures through trade, diplomacy, and artistic exchange along the Silk Road. Archaeological discoveries of earthenware figures, like this slender woman with a tall headdress, give a vivid picture of everyday life in 8th-century China. Aristocratic women had a high degree of freedom during the Tang dynasty, especially in contrast with the Neo-Confucianism of the later Song dynasty. Women were well educated and active; paintings exist of Tang women riding horses and participating in hunts and warfare, in addition to doing more courtly, traditionally feminine activities like dancing or making music.

Object facts

• Title: Court Lady with Tall Headdress: Tomb Figurine
• Date: c. 700–750
• Culture: North China, Tang dynasty (618-907)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: earthenware with polychromy
• Dimensions: Overall: 30.8 cm (12 1/8 in.)
• Collection: China - Tang Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1983.24

A detail from the museum

Earthenware figurines like this one were placed in the tombs to accompany the deceased to the afterlife.

Collection credit

Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Turner, Evan H. “Year in Review for 1983.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 71, no. 2 (1984): 38–79.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.