Bringing the Dead to Life: Identification, Interpretation, and Display of Chinese Burial Objects in the Rewi Alley Collection at Canterbury Museum A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Art History University of Canterbury Siobhan O’Brien 2016 Contents List of Figures 1 Acknowledgements 6 Introduction 7 Chapter One: History and Provenance of Chinese Burial Objects with identification of examples from the Rewi Alley Collection 14 Chapter Two: The Ontological and Theoretical Complexities of Burial Objects in Museums 44 Chapter Three: Modes of Display of Chinese Burial Objects from the Rewi Alley Collection at Canterbury Museum 75 Conclusion 104 Bibliography 106 Figures 119 1 List of Figures Fig.1 Model of Granary, Han Dynasty (206 B.C.- 220 A.D.), baked earthenware with green pigment, 110x89x141mm (l x w x h), Rewi Alley Collection, Canterbury Museum, Accession number C1948.40, Source: ‘China, Art and Cultural Diplomacy’,(http://ucomeka1p.canterbury.ac.nz/items/show/671) Accessed August 4, 2015. Fig.2 Model of Granary, Han Dynasty (206 B.C.- 220 A.D.), baked earthenware with green pigment, 97x98x223mm (l x w x h), excavated at Wu Wei, Gansu Province, Rewi Alley Collection, Canterbury Museum, Accession number C1947.8, Source: ‘China, Art and Cultural Diplomacy’, (http://ucomeka1p.canterbury.ac.nz/items/show/669) Accessed August 4 2015. Fig.3 Model of Well-Head, Han Dynasty (206 B.C.- 220 A.D.), baked earthenware with green pigment, 115x106x224mm (l x w x h), excavated at Wu Wei, Gansu Province, Rewi Alley Collection, Canterbury Museum, Accession number C1947.9, Source: ‘China, Art and Cultural Diplomacy’, (http://ucomeka1p.canterbury.ac.nz/items/show/670) Accessed August 4 2015. Fig.4 Granary, Han Dynasty (206 B.C.- 220 A.D.), earthenware with relief decoration under iridescent green glaze, 235x203mm (h x dia), Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession number 93.1.247, Source: (http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/51229) Accessed August 4 2015. Fig.5 Granary, Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.- 9 B.C..), pottery, 345x200mm (h x dia), excavated at Mt. Fenghuang in Jiangling, Hubei Province, National Museum of Chinese History, Beijing, Source: Qinghua Guo, The mingqi Pottery Buildings of Han Dynasty China 206 BC- AD 220, Sussex Academic Press, 2010, pg.88. Fig.6 Granary, 180 B.C, pottery, 256mm (h), excavated at Dongdianzi, Xuzhou, Source: Qinghua Guo, The mingqi Pottery Buildings of Han Dynasty China 206 BC- AD 220, Sussex Academic Press, 2010, pg.88. Fig.7 Granary, painted pottery, 248mm (h), Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki, Japan, Source: Qinghua Guo, The mingqi Pottery Buildings of Han Dynasty China 206 BC- AD 220, Sussex Academic Press, 2010, pg.91. Fig.8 Model of Well Head with Bucket, Eastern Han Dynasty (25 A.D.- 220 A.D), earthenware with green lead glaze, 378x222mm (h x w), Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession number 2000.662.12a, b, Source: (http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/49532) Accessed August 4 2015. Fig.9 Green glazed Pottery Well Head, Late Eastern Han Dynasty (25 A.D.- 220 A.D.), 403x150x180mm (h x dia. of foot x dia. of mouth), unearthed at no.2 tomb of Zhangwan, Lingbao County, Sanmenxia City, Henan in 1972, Henan Museum, Source: (http://english.chnmus.net/fortnightselection/node_6993.htm) Accessed August 4 2015. Fig.10 Pot/Wine Jar, Han Dynasty (between 200B.C. and 200A.D.), burnished earthenware, 249x223mm (h x dia), excavated at Hei Shui Kuo, Rewi Alley Collection, Canterbury Museum, Accession number C1947.2, Source: ‘China, Art and Cultural Diplomacy’, (http://ucomeka1p.canterbury.ac.nz/items/show/838) Accessed August 4 2015. Fig.11 Pot/Wine Jar, Han Dynasty (206 B.C.- 220 A.D.), unglazed earthenware, 288x407mm (dia x thickness), excavated at Hei Shui Kuo, Rewi Alley Collection, Canterbury Museum, Accession number C1947.1, Source: ‘China, Art and Cultural Diplomacy’, (http://ucomeka1p.canterbury.ac.nz/items/show/126) Accessed August 4 2015. 2 Fig.12 Water Jar, Zhou Period (1046-256 B.C.), pottery, 245x130x80mm (h x dia. of mouth x dia. of base), Collection of Berthold Laufer for American Museum of Natural History, Accession number 70.14837, Source: Berthold Laufer, Chinese Pottery of the Han Dynasty, Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc., Japan, 1962, pg.13, fig.1 of plate III. Fig.13 Jar (hu), late Western Han Dynasty or early Eastern Han Dynasty (100B.C.-100A.D.), Stoneware with applied and incised decoration with green glaze, 4255x343mm (h x w), Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Allan C. Balch Collection, Los Angeles County Museum, Accession number M.52.2.1, Source: Henry Trubner, Chinese Ceramics: From the Prehistoric Period through Ch'ien Lung, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1952. Fig.14 Jar (hu), Later Han Dynasty, stoneware, excavated from Loyang Region, Lubor Hajek & Werner Forman, A book of Chinese art: four thousand years of sculpture, painting, bronze, jade, lacquer and porcelain, Spring Books, London, 1966, plate 50. Figs.15 & 16 Model of Stove, Han Dynasty (206 B.C.- 220 A.D.), earthenware, 215x181x100mm (l x w x h), excavated at Hei Shui Kuo, Rewi Alley Collection, Canterbury Museum, Accession number C1947.3, Source: ‘China, Art and Cultural Diplomacy’, (http://ucomeka1p.canterbury.ac.nz/items/show/348) Accessed August 4 2015. Fig.17 Grave Furnishing, Han Dynasty (206 B.C.- 220 A.D.), terracotta, Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, Source: Dagny Carter, Four Thousand Years of China's Art, The Ronald Press Company, New York, 1948, pg.78. Fig.18 Stove, Han Dynasty (206 B.C.- 220 A.D.), earthenware, American Museum of Natural History, Accession number 70/11856 AB, Source: (http://www.amnh.org/explore/news-blogs/on-exhibit- posts/artifacts-from-museum-s-collections-offer-clues-to-two-thousand-year-old-cooking-methods) Accessed August 4 2015. Fig.19 Model of Seated Drummer, Han Dynasty (206 B.C.- 220 A.D.), earthenware with pigment, 375x 400x550mm (l x w x h), excavated at Sichuan Province, Rewi Alley Collection, Canterbury Museum, Accession number C1965.9, Source: ‘China, Art and Cultural Diplomacy’, (http://ucomeka1p.canterbury.ac.nz/items/show/228) Accessed August 4 2015. Fig.20 Squatting Drummer, Eastern Han Dynasty (25 A.D.- 220 A.D.), earthenware, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Accession number G215, (http://www.artsconnected.org/resource/55083/figure-of-a- squatting-drummer) Accessed August 4 2015. Fig.21 Squatting Drummer, 1st-2nd Century, earthenware, 480mm (h), excavated at Xindu Sanhexiang, Xindu County Bureau of Cultural Antiquities, People's Republic of China, Source: (http://press- princeton.edu/sichuan/drummer/html) Accessed August 4 2015. Fig.22 Model of Lute (pipa) Player, Tang Dynasty (618- 907 A.D.), earthenware, 67x89x258mm (l x w x h), Rewi Alley Collection, Canterbury Museum, Accession number C1956.656, Source: ‘China, Art and Cultural Diplomacy’, (http://ucomeka1p.canterbury.ac.nz/items/show/692) Accessed August 4 2015. Fig.23 Female Musician, Sui Dynasty (581–618 A.D.), stone with pigments and gilding, 500mm (h), excavated from the tomb of Yu Hong (dated 592) in Shaanxi Province in 1999, Jinyuan Bureau of Cultural Properties and Tourism, Source: James C.Y. Watt, China: dawn of a golden age, 200-750 AD, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2013, pg.283, fig.176. Fig.24 Lute Player, earthenware with red pigment, Museo Di Arte Orientale, Torino, Italy, Source: (http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/asset-viewer/lute-player/FgH9VrfUrv7RAg) Accessed August 4 2015. 3 Fig.25 Pottery figure of a musician, Sui Dynasty (581–618 A.D.), glazed terracotta, 266.7mm (h), Collection of Andre Carlhian (1883-1968), Source: (http://www.artfoxlive.com/match/1388) Accessed August 4 2015 Fig.26 Model of Standing Man, Tang Dynasty (618- 907 A.D.), earthenware, 50x64x234mm (l x w x h), Rewi Alley Collection, Canterbury Museum, Accession number C1956.228, Source: ‘China, Art and Cultural Diplomacy’, (http://ucomeka1p.canterbury.ac.nz/items/show/674) Accessed August 4 2015. Fig.27 Figurine, 520 A.D., pottery, 180mm (h), excavated from the tomb of Yuan Shao, Loyang area, Source: Annette L. Juliano, Teng-Hsien: An Important Six Dynasties Tomb, Artibus Asiae Publishers, Switzerland, 1980, image 123. Fig.28 Tomb Figure of a Man, Tang Dynasty (618- 907 A.D.), pottery, Source: Michael Ridley, Treasures of China, Dolphin Press, 1973, pg.112. Fig.29 Figures of Peasants, Han Dynasty (206 B.C.- 220 A.D.), pottery, Source: Lubor Hajek & Werner Forman, A book of Chinese art: four thousand years of sculpture, painting, bronze, jade, lacquer and porcelain, Spring Books, London, 1966, plate 27. Fig.30 Soldier Attendants, marble with traces of pigments and gilding, each 402mm (h), excavated from the tomb of Yang Sixu, Xi’an, Shaanxi Province in 1957, National Museum of China, Source: James C.Y. Watt, China: dawn of a golden age, 200-750 AD, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2013, pg.311, figs.203a and 203b. Fig.31 Model of Zodiac Animal (Dog), Tang Dynasty (618- 907 A.D.), glazed earthenware, 71x79x283mm (l x w x h), Rewi Alley Collection, Canterbury Museum, Accession number C1956.233, Source: ‘China, Art and Cultural Diplomacy’, (http://ucomeka1p.canterbury.ac.nz/items/show/676) Accessed August 4 2015. Fig.32 Set of the Twelve Zodiac Animals (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig), Tang Dynasty (618- 907 A.D.), earthenware with pigments, 385-415mm, excavated in 1995 in the suburbs of Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, Shaanxi History Museum, Source: Sherman Lee, China 5000 Years: Innovation and Transformation in the Arts, Guggenheim Museum, 1998, image 108. Fig.33 Set of the Twelve Zodiac Animals, Tang Dynasty (618- 907 A.D.), earthenware with white slip, each approx.