Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Female Dancer
Western Han dynasty (206 BCE–9 CE)
Not on view
To transport worldly pleasures and activities into the afterlife, ceramic models of objects from everyday life were often interred in tombs together with the deceased. This earthenware model of a dancer, one of a performing group whose companions also appear in this gallery, was made to entertain the tomb occupants into eternity. Captured mid-movement, the woman appears to be performing a slow, elegant dance that highlights her long sleeves. Bending to the left so that her body forms an S shape, she raises both arms into smooth curves to either side.
#209. Female dancer
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