Farm Shed with Grain Mill
Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE)
- Medium
- Brick-red earthenware with green lead glaze
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- 17.8 × 19.4 × 27.3 cm (7 × 7 5/8 × 10 3/4 in.)
- Culture
- China
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Asia
- Credit line
- Gift of Rose Movius Palmer
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This humble-looking burial model illustrates two notable inventions in engineering and architecture that were in used widely during the Han dynasty. The rotary mill, worked by a pedal-operated hammer, was used to prepare grain for flour. The shed that encloses it has a deeply overhanging tile roof supported by a wood column with projecting bracket arms. This type of bracketing, which transferred the weight of the roof to the column, became an increasingly important feature of later Chinese buildings.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
