元 剔紅浴嬰圖漆盒|Box with scene of bathing children

Unknown

14th century · Carved red lacquer · Asian Art

This tiny box, previously thought to date to the sixteenth century, can be reassigned to the fourteenth after comparison with an example bearing an image of the poet Tao Qian, which dates to the first half of the fourteenth century. The large, unarticulated shapes of the rocks and the use of a single pattern for the low-relief background are similar on both boxes, as are the thick incisions used to define the figures' clothing and the large oval faces with nondescript features.

Artist

Unknown

Date

14th century

Medium

Carved red lacquer

Culture

China

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Gift of Florence and Herbert Irving, 2015