Unidentified Artist
Date:
Early 8th Century
Medium:
Earthenware with brown, green, and transparent lead glazes over white slip
Size:
Depth: 8 1/16″
Width: 28 3/4″
Height: 32 1/2″
Bright lead glaze, applied in layers, evokes a camel’s heavy, matted fur. Splashes on the slab base reveal the runny nature of the glaze. This clay camel was made for a Tang dynasty (618–907) tomb and would have been accompanied by many other ceramic figures.

Tombs belonging to the aristocratic or military elite were furnished with everything necessary for the deceased soul’s comfort and amusement. Mortuary pottery of girls playing polo, horses saddled and ready to ride, and fearsome guardian creatures, as well as copies of metalwork from Central Asia, are among the objects discovered in these tombs. Family members amply provided such items for the soul of the deceased to secure their ancestor’s favor.

Families reinforced their status by carrying furnishings to the tomb in a display of filial piety and disposable wealth. Some families were even bankrupted by this practice. An imperial decree in 742 limited the contents of tombs based on the rank of the deceased: officials of the third rank and above were permitted up to 70 figures, while most were allowed only 15.

Gift of David K.E. Bruce BMA 1956.148

Looking at the Colors

Transcript

Aaron Henkin] This figure dates to the early eighth century. Its colors, brown, green, and white, were a special set of three color glazes that were extremely popular during the Tong Dynasty. Ceramicist Kyle Bauer explains that these glazes were applied to the clay figure before it was fired. As the kiln heated up, these low temperature glazes melted and ran down the figure. It’s known as the sansai technique.

[Kyle Bauer] I’m fascinated by this glaze because the artist in this sansai technique, they use the melting or the drippiness of the glaze to accentuate or highlight musculature, the curve of an object to provide a more lifelike presentation. You can see muscles and knees if you look on the shoulders, how that provides a hair like texture that comes through the thick and thin areas that pool on this glaze.

[Aaron Henkin] It’s a little surprising that the element of chance, the unpredictable way the glaze is going to run and pool in the crevices creates the illusion of shadows and highlights.

[Kyle Bauer] It’s going to give us, the viewer, the perception that there’s movement.

Hear an Ancient Description

Transcript

[Aaron Henkin] From the same period as this camel was made, there’s an ancient document called Records of the Western regions that describes heavily laden camels moving across a huge, harsh expanse of Central Asia. The desert was nearly a thousand miles wide. Listen to this wonderful description and just imagine.

[Frances Klapthor] There are no birds overhead and no beasts below. There is neither water nor herb to be found. At this time in the four directions the view was boundless. There were no traces either of man or horse. And in the night the demons and goblins raised fire lights as many as the stars. In the daytime, the driving wind blew the sand before it as in the season of rain