Eastern Han Dynasty Dog Statuette

$498.87

A finely modelled Eastern Han Dynasty hollow-moulded statuette of a dog, shown standing on all four legs and wearing a thick collar. The dog is depicted in a menacing look, expressed though the pricked ears, the staring eyes and the tightly clenched jaws. Its collar wraps around the animal’s chest and neck, terminating in a loop on its shoulders. A fashionable accessory of the time, the ridged collar suggests that the animal was a pet with a wealthy owner.

Date: Circa 25- 220 AD
Period: Eastern Han Dynasty
Condition: Good condition, with earthy encrustations and signs of wear on the surface. A crack below the neck, chipped tail and partly chipped ears.

In stock

The Eastern Han Dynasty (A.D. 25-220) was afflicted by political conflicts and social turmoil towards the end of its imperial power; yet, it showed great adherence to early imperial Chinese traditions and stylistic features in its artistic production. Both the quantity and quality of ancient Chinese terracotta figurines reached their peak in the Han Dynasty. During this period, a wide variety of terracotta figurines, reflecting different identities and services, were finely executed in great detail, and then placed in burials. Ostentatiously displaying such goods, known as mingqi (冥器) in Chinese, inside the tombs was not only to embellish funeral offerings, but also to further their services to the tomb owners in the afterlife. Mingqi were usually modelled as an intimation of either common objects that once played a vital role in the domestic life, or as zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figures, that were closely related to the deceased when they were alive. Zoomorphic terracotta figurines with naturalistically rendered features and details had been absent in Chinese burial history until the advent of the Western Han Dynasty. Pottery images of dogs were popular in Han graves, since the dog was believed to be the best companion for the deceased. They were often portrayed with fearsome features to protect the deceased in their afterlife.

To discover more about Chinese terracotta statuettes, please visit our relevant blog post: Terracotta Tomb Attendants.

Weight 549.9 g
Dimensions L 17 x H 14 cm
Culture

Region

Pottery and Porcelain

Reference: For a similar item, please see The Metropolitan Museum, item 1991.253.1

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