Virginia L. Bower
Edited by Robert D. Mowry

2002. 160 pp., 80 color illus., 8-3/4 x 12.

ISBN 0-300-09696-8 Cloth. $45.
ISBN 1-891771-25-6 Paper. $30.
Trade distribution by Yale University Press.

During the Chinese Han (206 B.C.-A.D. 220) and Tang (A.D. 618-907) dynasties, earthenware sculptures were placed in elaborate tombs to protect and serve the spirits of the deceased. These fascinating sculptures took the forms of soldiers, courtiers, musicians, merchants, and attendants. Animals were depicted as well, among them horses, rams, boars, dogs, and camels.

From Court to Caravan features seventy-three exquisite Chinese tomb sculptures from the Anthony M. Solomon collection, which includes a particularly rich selection of sixth-century pieces and is noteworthy for its focus on unglazed, cold-painted sculptures. This book provides an up-to-date overview of China's wide variety of ceramic tomb sculptures, their place in Chinese material culture, and the influences of the Silk Route trade that they reveal.

This is the catalogue for an exhibition at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University, 27 July to 15 September 2002. Selections from the exhibition will be on view at The Asia Society and Museum, New York, 9 October 2002 to 9 February 2003.

Virginia L. Bower is an independent scholar specializing in Asian art. Robert D. Mowry is Alan J. Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, and Senior Lecturer on Chinese and Korean Art in the Department of the History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University.

See press release
See exhibition information