Model of a Pigsty and Latrines
China; probably from Henan province
Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), 100 BCE–100 CE
- Medium
- Gray earthenware with stamped decoration
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- 40.6 × 21.6 × 27.9 cm (16 × 8 1/2 × 11 in.)
- Culture
- China
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Asia
- Credit line
- Gift of Bertha Palmer Thorne
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Han-dynasty grave goods documented even the most mundane aspects of rural life. As illustrated here, latrines—or toilets—were customarily built above a pigsty and connected by pipes to a cesspool. The ar-chitectural style of this well-constructed object resembles models excavated from tombs in Huixian, a city in northern China.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
