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Materpieces of Chinese Pottery |
Painted pottery basin with human face and fish designs (about 7,000 years old)
Yangshao culture. Excavated from Banpo village, Shaanxi province. This pottery basin, 16.5 cm high and 39.5 cm in diameter, bears designs of human faces and fish in black glaze, arranged in symmetry. The eyes on the faces are narrowed into lines, as if their owners are praying fervently for a bumper harvest of fish.
Pottery figure of a kneeling archer
Produced in the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.). This figure, 122cm high and made of terracotta, was excavated from the No.1 vault on the eastern side of the mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shihuang (the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty) in Lintong county, Shaanxi province, in 1979. It is part of a life-sized pottery army guarding the tomb.
Pottery figurine of a storyteller
Produced in the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220), this pottery figurine, 50cm high, was excavated in 1982 from Mount Tianhui in Chengdu, Sichuan province. Wearing a turban, the bare-chested storyteller holds a drum in his right hand, and a drum stick in his left hand. Grinning from ear to ear, the storyteller appears to be enjoying himself.
Tricolor-glazed pottery figures of women
Manufactured in the Tang dynasty (618-907), these pottery figures, about 42cm high (left) and 45cm high (right), were found in a tomb in the suburbs of Xi'an city, Shaanxi province 1n 1959. They give a valuable glimpse of the Tang ideal of female beauty and elegance.
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