Browse: 10610 objects
Figure of a sleeping servant boy
- loan
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Details
- Associated place
- Date
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6th century AD (AD 501 - 600)
Northern Wei Period (AD 386 - 534)
- Material and technique
- earthenware, moulded, with incised decoration and traces of red pigment
- Dimensions
- 9.5 x 3.9 x 6.2 cm (height x width x depth)
- Material index
- Technique index
- Object type index
- No. of items
- 1
- Credit line
- Lent by the Sir Alan Barlow Collection Trust.
- Accession no.
- LI1301.397
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Further reading
University of Sussex, and Arts and Humanities Research Council, The Barlow Collection, supervised by Regina Krahl, Maurice Howard, and Aiden Leeves (Sussex: University of Sussex, 2006), no. S4
Glossary
earthenware
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earthenware
Ceramic material made of clay which is fired to a temperature of c.1000-1200⁰c. The resulting ceramic is non-vitreous and varies in colour from dark red to yellow.
Location
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- currently in research collection
Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.
Publications online
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The Barlow Collection
Pottery figures of curly-haired youths, sometimes depicted with dark skin and generally bare-chested and barefoot, wrapped in a long piece of cloth, are well known from the burial wares of the Tang dynasty (AD 618–907) (see the pair of figures in the Barlow Collection, [LI1301.429.1, LI1301.429.2]). The present figure, which represents an earlier example, is remarkable for its unconventional, naturalistic pose. A very similar figure was excavated from a Northern Wei tomb at Luoyang, Henan province, which can be dated to AD 528.
The figure shows a sleeping servant boy, seated on the ground with legs pulled close to the body, his head buried in his arms, his face completely hidden, his dense curly hair clearly visible. A belted garment is indicated in low relief. The figure is hollow, the grey pottery is coated with a white dressing and shows traces of red pigment.
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