Rubbing of a Stone from the Tang-Fang Collection (1900–1916): Art, History and Details

Rubbing of a Stone from the Tang-Fang Collection (1900–1916) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Figures, birds, and a chariot depicted in three registers correspond to a stone relief from the east wall of the front stone chamber in the Wu Liang shrine: the top register shows a procession with a horse carriage; the second has scenes of filial piety; the third presents a banquet scene. However, missing inscribed labels to identify the scenes and a carriage replaced by two figures in the lower left corner reveal that this rubbing differs from the Wu Liang shrine version. The museum’s rubbing was either altered, taken from a different local Han dynasty shrine, or from a later stone slab that was recarved to produce rubbings for the market.

Object facts

• Title: Rubbing of a Stone from the Tang-Fang Collection
• Date: 1900–1916
• Culture: China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911) or Republican period (1912-49)
• Type: Miscellaneous
• Technique: Rubbing, ink on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 78.7 x 174 cm (31 x 68 1/2 in.); Rubbing only: 64.1 x 123.2 cm (25 1/4 x 48 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Chinese Art
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1919.76

A detail from the museum

The process of making rubbings has been done in China since at least the 6th century.

Collection credit

Gift of Yamanaka & Company

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Accessions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 6, no. 5 (1919): 97-98.

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.