Jan 22, 2021
Tomb Guardians, glazed earthenware, early 700s, China, Tang Dynasty
Cleveland Museum of Art
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Tomb Guardians, glazed earthenware, early 700s, China, Tang Dynasty
Cleveland Museum of Art
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Tomb Guardian with Animal Head 鎮墓獸
early 700s
China, probably Shaanxi province, Xi'an, Tang dynasty
Glazed earthenware, sancai (three-color) ware
Sancai (three-color) glazes in green, amber, and transparent white, plus expensive cobalt blue glaze, show the high social status of the tomb’s occupant.
With their fierce expressions and exaggerated physical features, fantastic guardian creatures were intended to guard the entrance to a tomb, warding off evil as well as keeping the soul of the deceased from wandering. Known as "earth spirits" or qitou, this one has an animal face and a pair of antlers growing above its eyebrows; the other sports a human face with huge protruding ears and a short horn surrounded by fiery, twisting hair. Their many elongated spikes heighten the fearful intensity. Before tomb sculptures were placed in the tomb, they were carried through the streets in a funerary procession. Funerary gifts provided the deceased with means for the afterlife. They were also an expression of filial piety and demonstrated the wealth and power of the descendants.
These specific temple guardians made with Sancai (“tricolor”) glaze are only found in tombs from the Tang Dynasty in China, which lasted from the 7th to 10th century. The dripping, fluid designs betray the raw power of these guardians but their creation was actually very simple. A transparent glaze or wax-resist was used, and then the liquideous lead based glazes were splashed on or painted while the object was on a slanted surface, to encourage the colors to run and blot. Now ordinarily, you’d probably think that these fearsome tomb guardians, would be used to keep trespassers out, and you would only be partially correct. These grotesque creatures, these qitou, were intended to keep the deceased spirits in place! The guardians came in sets of two and were typically buried with other figurines, which were used as an alternative to actually burying servants and wives with the deceased, a previous practice. And now that you humans don’t have the good sense to use them anymore or to leave them in their tombs (though I have heard that they are a status symbol among your higher classes), vengeful spirits roam wherever they please. Now that you know how to make them, I do believe this could be quite enterprisable for yourself.
from my senior thesis, including "in-voice" text