Painted figure of a horse

Collection NumberA002625
TitlePainted figure of a horse
DateWestern Han dynasty, B.C. 2nd century
Name of prefectures & citiesChina
Description of works【Horse meant to run in the land of the dead】
This terracotta horse was made by firing gray clay coated with brown slip. Its mouth is white inside, and there’s a faint remnant of red paint in its nostrils. Its muscular body, modeled after horses with squarish bodies considered ideal in the Han dynasty (2 C. BCE–3 C. CE), is meticulously formed. In terms of size, it is much smaller than the horses in the Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. They were mass-produced as funerary objects.

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