Lamp with Sixteen Branches
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.This lamp, one of the most elaborate Han examples of its kind, takes the shape of a tree with sixteen branches. The branches follow two prototypes: one has a crane, and the other, a winged immortal riding a dragon. A gigantic turtle in the lowermost basin carries the trunk on its back. (Both the turtle and the crane were Han symbols of longevity.) Three figures and twenty-five animals populate the mountain-shaped base, whose surface is painted with clouds. The clouds suggest a place high above the human world, thus transforming the lamp into a land of immortality—appropriate imagery for a funerary object such as this.
Artwork Details
- 东汉 彩绘陶多枝灯
- Title: Lamp with Sixteen Branches
- Period: Eastern Han dynasty (25–220)
- Culture: China
- Medium: Earthenware with pigment
- Dimensions: H. 43 5/16 in. (110 cm); Diam. of base: 14 3/4–15 3/8 in. (37.5–39 cm)
- Classification: Ceramics
- Credit Line: Lent by Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art