Model of a Two-Story Structure (Eastern Han dynasty, 25–220 CE): Artwork and History

Model of a Two-Story Structure (Eastern Han dynasty, 25–220 CE) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as China.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

Burial models attest to the prevalence of multistoried buildings in early imperial China. This two-story structure, simply constructed of clay slabs, has a tile roof and an openwork balcony supported by brackets. Such realistic details are modified by imaginative "squatting-bear" feet. This model may depict a granary, or it may have been assembled with other clay structures to form a residential compound.

Object facts

• Title: Model of a Two-Story Structure
• Date: Eastern Han dynasty, 25–220 CE
• Artist attribution: China
• Place of origin: China
• Medium: Brick-red earthenware with green lead glaze
• Dimensions: 51.6 × 33.5 × 11.5 cm (20 5/16 × 13 3/16 × 4 1/2 in.)
• Type: Sculpture
• Department: Arts of Asia
• Reference number: 1924.223

Collection credit

Lucy Maud Buckingham Collection

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The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.