Bowl Painted with Human Face and Fish

• Neolithic Period, Banpo
• Painted pottery of the Yangshao culture
• Subject matter: Fish and human faces painted on inside, meaning unknown
• Function: holding food or water

Gu Beaker

• @ Shandong
• Black pottery of the Longshan Culture/"Black Pottery Culture",
• Style: No painted decoration, elegant shape, thin body, technique improved from Yangshao,
• Function: Ritual (small size) 

Prismatic Tube (Cong)

• Liangzhu Culture
• Tomb in Zheilang
• Medium: Nephrite jade
• Function: used for ritual ceremony,
• Style: animal motif, taotie,
• Subject Matter: prototype for Bronze Age,

Li he

• Early Shang Period
• Zheng zhou phase
• Function: Ritual Food Vessel, funerary
• Medium: Bronze 
• Style: Style 2, single band, incised
• Subject Matter: single band

Jue

• Three Dynasties, Early Shang Dynasty
• Henan 
• Function: Ritual Wine Vessel 
• Medium: Bronze
• Style: Style 2, Small, no decoration on surface, good casting technique with mold, elegant lets of the vessel 

Ding

• Anyang Period 
• Function: Ritual food/wine vessel
• Style: Spiral patterns, style 4, pattern covering entire vessel,
• Medium: Bronze 

Bianzhong (Chime of Bells)

•  Eastern Zhou
• Tomb of the Marquis Yi of Zheng @ Hubei
• Medium: Bronze and wood 
• Function: musical tradition, harmony, Confucian idea
• Style: bronze timber frame,
• Subject Matter: 65 two-toned bronze bells

Mirror

• Eastern Zhou
• Henan
• Medium: Bronze, inlaid with gold and silver
• Function: secular
• Style: swirl patterns, gold and silver inlay,
• Subject matter: cloud patters, warrior on horseback fighting beast, 
• Shows technological advance

Rhinoceros Zun

• Eastern Zhou 
• Medium: Bronze, traces of gold inlay, black eyes
• Style: naturalistic rendering, fine inlay,
• Subject matter: realistic rhinoceros, used to contain things, meaning unknown 
• Function: ritualistic use 

Man Riding a Dragon-Boat

• Eastern Zhou
•  Medium: Ink and colors on silk
• Style: lines create painting, figure in profile, linear style, detailed robe, hair, and chariot
• Subject matter: dragon (auspicious; known to save people from floods),
• Function: iconographic 
• First painting to be discovered

Cavalryman and Saddle Horse

• Qin Dynasty
• Tomb of Emperor Qin in Shaanxi
• Medium: Terra Cotta
• Function: ritual, placed in burial tomb
  Subject Matter: Cavalryman and Horse, guarding tomb
• Style: narrow eyes, straight nose, very realistic hair and clothing, proportion of horse is small 

Lamp in the Shape of Serving Girl

•  Western Han
• Tomb of Dou Wan @ Hebei
• Medium: Gilt bronze
• Function: funerary (found in tomb), lighting (lamp) 
• Style: realistic style, facial features like those of Qin Dynasty,
• Subject Matter: serving girl holding lamp, meant to attend Dou Wan in death,  

Feiyi [Flying Garment]

• Western Han Dynasty
• Tomb of the Marquis of Dai @ Hunan
• Medium: Ink and color on silk
• Function: held in front of burial procession, funerary,
• Style: very mythical, certain colors designated to each realm, not very realistic, 
• Subject Matter: 3 realms (heaven, earth, and hell), heaven shows dragons, turtle representing the moon, bird representing the sun, chimeral figures, Queen Mother of the West (creator), guardians, bronze bell image; earth shows 2 officials, wife of Marquis with attendants, hierarchical sizing; hell shows canopy with vessels and ding, dark blue/grey colors, human heads with bird bodies, imaginary animals of hell,

Paragons of Filial Piety

Eastern Han 

Lelang

Medium: Painted in lacquer on a basketwork box

Function: Portraying Confucianism

Style: not very realistic, profile, 3/4, and frontal facial angles,

Subject Matter: identifying inscriptions next to each figure, demonstrates hierarchy of respect,

Gentlemen in Conversation

• Eastern Han Dynasty 
• Tomb at Luoyang
• Medium: painted on earthenware tomb tile
• Style: caligraphic style, mastered brushwork, unique and detailed facial features, horizontal composition, empty background,
• Function: funerary
• Subject Matter: vivid hand gestures, interesting pastures, psychological complexity through posture, 

The Archer Yi, the Fushan Tree, and Reception in a Mansion

• Eastern Han 
• Medium: Rubbing of stone relief
• Wu Family Shrine, Shandong
• Function: Funerary, Confucian
• Style: not very realistic, geometric style, hierarchical sizing,  
• Subject Matter: Archer Yi (shooter of the suns), tree with birds, Lao Tze, emperor under awning, hierarchical sizing,  

Hunting and Harvesting

• Eastern Han
• Sichuan 
• Medium: Rubbing of earthenware tile
• Style: Diagonal lines to suggest depth of space, different sizes of figures to suggest perspective, very simplistic, not realistic,
• Function iconographic 
• Subject matter: daily life 

Standing Buddha

•  Six Dynasties
• Mogao Caves at Dunhuang 
• Medium: Gilt bronze
• Function: religious 
• Style: smile, downcast eyes, Gupta style, long ears, schematic pattern on drapery
• Subject Matter: Buddha, welcoming mudra

Scenes of Filial Piety

Six Dynasties
Tomb in Datong 

Medium: Four panel wooden folding screen, lacquered screen

Function: funerary 

Style: Very vibrant colors, somewhat simplistic, horizontal,

Subject Matter: Shows how one should be filial in different stages of life,

Admonitions of the Instructress to the Ladies of the  Palace

• Six Dynasties
• Format: Handscroll
• Medium: ink  and color on silk
• Function: Aesthetic, secular
• Style: Elongated style, iron-wire lines, thin even lines, realistic,
• Subject Matter: Instructress advising and teaching ladies of the palace, 

Thirteen Emperors

• Tang Dynasty
• Attr. Yan Liben
• Format: handscroll
• Medium: ink and color on silk
• Function: Aesthetic, personal use,
• Style: red shade (adopted from India), thin even lines, 3D shading, hierarchical elements,
• Subject Matter: Emperor Wendi and Feidi from Chen Dynasty

Ladies with Flowers in Their Hair

•  Tang Dynasty
• By Zhou Fang
• Format: Handscroll
• Medium: ink and color on silk
• Function: Aesthetic, personal use
• Style: Hierarchical, clothing painted like semitransparent silk, Central Asia-influenced motifs, empty background, no immediate setting,
• Subject Matter: Ladies with flowers in their hair, one holding a fan, both preceded by a crane

Traveling in Spring

•  Tang Dynasty
• Zhan Ziqian
• Medium: ink and color on silk
• Format: handscroll, horizontal,
• Function: Aesthetic, personal use
• Style: Figures very small, not subjects of painting, major concern is the landscape, use of blue and green for mountains and trees (mineral color), style of Tang Dynasty
• Subject Matter: Landscape painting

Vairocana and Attendants

• Tang Dynasty 
• Henan
• Medium: Limestone
• Function: Buddhist iconography
• Style: realistic style, round chubby face, downcast eyes, 3 wrinkles on neck, halo, usinisha, realistic, 
• Subject Matter: Buddha, bodhisattvas, and monks,

Colossal Buddha 

•  Six Dynasties
• Shaanxi
• Medium: Sandstone
• Function: iconographic, religious
• Style: Gupta style, long ear lobes, geometrically styled robes
• Subject Matter: Buddha beside bodhisattva,

Burial Urn

• Neolithic Period 
• Style: Geometric spiral pattern, painted pottery,
• Subject matter: Unknown
• Yangshao Culture
• Function: funerary, container for food to be placed in tomb or at burial site,

A Night Revels of Han Xizai

• Five Dynasties Period
• Attr. to Gu Hongzhong  
• Format: handscroll
• Medium: ink and color on silk
• Function: Aesthetic, personal use, commissioned for Han Xizai by emperor to recruit as prime minister, 
• Style: Narrative compostition, slight reverse perspective, detailed gestures and facial expression, various colors, fine lines for facial features,
• Subject Matter: Han Xizai entertaining guests at a party, playing instruments for female guests to dance to, listening to female guests play instruments, 

Travellers Amid Mountains and Streams

• Northern Song 
• By Fan Kuan
• Format: hanging scroll
• Medium: ink on silk
• Function: Aesthetic
• Style: Rain drop textstroke
• Subject Matter: Uses 3 grounds: foreground with people animals, trees, river; middle ground with architecture, trees; background with mountains; separated by misty fog, 

A Solitary Temple Amid Clearing Peaks

• Northern Song 
• Attr. to Li Cheng 
• Format: hanging scroll
• Medium: ink on silk
• Function: Aesthetic, attempt to convey accesibility
• Style: rain drop textstroke, crab claw textstroke, use of three grounds, realistic depictions
• Subject Matter: Landscape painting, mist dividing background and middle ground, 

Early Spring

• Northern Song 
• Guo Xi 
• Format: hanging scroll
• Medium: ink on silk
• Function: Aesthetic
• Style: High contrast compared to other silk painitngs, division between grounds not so clear, crab claw textstroke, depth of space created by mist
• Subject Matter: Landscape painting,

Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk

• Northern Song 
• Attr to Huizong
• Format: handscroll
• Medium: ink and color on silk
• Function: Aesthetic, copy of Tang Dynasty painting,
• Style: Women painted in Tang style (small eyes and mouth, Tang hairstyle, heavy make up, chubby face), fan in painting in style of Song Dynasty, various colors used, geometric prints on clothes,
• Subject Matter: Women of round features preparing silk,

Viewing Plum Blossoms by Moonlight

• Southern Song Dynasty
• By Ma Yuan "One Corner Ma"
• Format: Fan Mounted as an Album Leaf
• Medium: ink and color on silk
• Function: Secular
• Style: Subject of painting in one corner, very sharp corners of axe-cut textstroke, more simple mountains,
• Subject Matter: A man and boy viewing plum blossoms, image of regular life

Pure and Remote View Over Rivers and Mountains

• Southern Song 
• By Xia Gui "Half Side Xia"
• Format: handscroll
• Medium: ink on silk
• Function: Aesthetic
• Style: Subject of painting off to one side, axe-cut textstroke used, 
• Subject Matter: Landscape painting using axe-cut textstroke, most space empty