Watchtower (25–220 CE): Art, History and Details

Watchtower (25–220 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

In this funerary sculpture of the watchtower is a lively retinue of hunters, musicians, dancers, and domestic animals. The representation provides a vivid picture of the worldly enjoyment to be perpetuated in the otherworldly realm of the afterlife. A low-temperature lead glaze is applied to its earthenware body, enhancing the modeled forms with a brilliant, smooth coating like a layer of opaque glass.

Object facts

• Title: Watchtower
• Date: 25–220 CE
• Culture: China, Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: earthenware with lead glaze
• Dimensions: Diameter: 39 cm (15 3/8 in.); Overall: 54.3 cm (21 3/8 in.)
• Collection: China - Han Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1989.71

Collection credit

The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991.
• Wilson, J. Keith. "Notable Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 3 (1991): 63-147.
• Wilson, J. Keith, and Anne E. Wardwell. "New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 8 (1994): 270-347.

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.