Female Dancer Sculpture from the Han Dynasty in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, July 2017

Female Dancer

Period: Western Han dynasty (206 B.C.–A.D. 9)

Culture: China

Medium: Earthenware with pigment

Dimensions: H. 19 5/16 in. (49 cm)

Classification: Tomb Pottery

Credit Line: Lent by Xuzhou City Museum

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 gentle, elegant dance that highlights her long sleeves. She bends slightly forward, raising her right arm. Her dangling sleeve, though motionless in the moment, seems to suggest the beginning of the next move.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/640878