In Western Han pottery, animal-headed vessels follow a near convention: ducks, geese, and waterfowl, something gentle, familiar, and easily identified.
These painted ceramic vessels, however, adopts an image that is exceptionally rare.
Short, upright pointed ears; wide, staring eyes; a mouth with a hint of menace, is this truly a feline? Or could it represent a tamed leopard?
Or is it simply a misreading imposed by modern taxonomic categories?
In the visual world of the Western Han, this head may not have belonged to any animal we recognise today, but rather to a liminal, mythic creature, poised between the domestic and the wild, between protection and intimidation.
40.5cm (16in)
Provenance
Priestley & Ferraro, Animals for the Afterlife, London, November 2002, no.22
Priestley & Ferraro, Timeless Creatures: Animals in Early Chinese Pottery and 20th Century Ink Paintings, London, Summer 2024, no.6
In Western Han pottery, animal-headed vessels follow a near convention: ducks, geese, and waterfowl, something gentle, familiar, and easily identified.
These painted ceramic vessels, however, adopts an image that is exceptionally rare.
Short, upright pointed ears; wide, staring eyes; a mouth with a hint of menace, is this truly a feline? Or could it represent a tamed leopard?
Or is it simply a misreading imposed by modern taxonomic categories?
In the visual world of the Western Han, this head may not have belonged to any animal we recognise today, but rather to a liminal, mythic creature, poised between the domestic and the wild, between protection and intimidation.
40.5cm (16in)
Provenance
Priestley & Ferraro, Animals for the Afterlife, London, November 2002, no.22
Priestley & Ferraro, Timeless Creatures: Animals in Early Chinese Pottery and 20th Century Ink Paintings, London, Summer 2024, no.6
