Figure of a Squatting Drummer

Figure of a Squatting Drummer

ARTH 1004W

Chengyingzi Chang

ID:4880249

FINAL ESSAY

  This essay I analyze is a work of art named Figure of a Squatting Drummer.  It is a yellow earthenware which was from Szechwan Province, China in the Eastern Han dynasty (A.D,25-220).  At that time, comical caricatures of performers were very popular(Wall text).  And this work is an typical sculpture of it.  The ceramic work is small, about 50cm, and after thousands years, there are some traces on the surface.  But fortunately, it can show the complete figure.  Used as a tomb figurine, it represents people’s homely life and art style of Han dynasty.  In Han tradition, we can find various tomb figurines of unpainted and painted earthenware (Lee).  And it is surely one of the most charming and distinctive examples of Han dynasty figure art.

  I have learned in high school that the sculpture is one of the most important expression of art work, and the pottery figurine also the most representative work.  In Han dynasty, the political system was stable and its socio-economic status was prosperous. So common wanted to get happy live, so there were many people playing “traditional opera” by the road such as modern amuse actors,  and this opera included some people of singing or speaking with playing drum (Li).  In Szechwan Province, people are active. So the pottery figurine have active image, vivid motion and interesting figure (Li).  

  The pottery figurine is a three-dimensional object.  It is irregular because the artist used exaggerate ways to show an old drummer.  This sculpture specializes in a type of storytelling who is part spoken and part sung.  His heavy body suggests he may be a dwarf (Wall text).  He wears a towel on his head, and he is topless and baring his feet.  The whole body and head turn to the left.  And he shrugs his shoulders.  In addition, there is a drum in his left hand and a hammer in his right hand.  I can also find that on his left arm, there is an ornament.  And he is sitting on the floor, setting down left foot and lifting up right foot as if saying something very interesting.  Besides that, his enraptured face, laughing mouth and wrinkled brow also expresses that his happiness and satisfaction.

  The dominant color employed by the artist is yellow.  It is the color of mud.  So it is also a little bit brown.  Maybe it had some other colors in original painting, but I just find there are some mottled gray spots on his body due to the long time.

  What’s more, the surface of the sculpture is rough and dull.  I observed that there are some small holes on the surface.  Some of the damages are unavoidable but actually they don’t affect the whole image of the art work.  

  Furthermore, the work of art is very simple, and the outline of the drummer is very clear.   The artist did not use some complex skills to decorate the old person, and he or she just used the simple lines to indicate the figure.  The artist used man’s line to figure the old drummer in clay.  And the artist stresses to depict his face, especially his eyes and mouth.  Therefore, we can observe the person’s motion easily.  The artist used many continuous rounded lines that can be defined easily.  Because it is a dwarf image, and he is short and heavy, so he has rounded body.  His abdomen is like a ball, and his drum is also rounded.  This kind of lines can make the person very cute and attractive.  Basically, the artist used lines to depict a complete dynamic characteristics such as hands, feet, eyes and nose of person.  Theses lines are very simple.  Compared to these lines, the curved lines of his mouth are more delicate.    Other lines around his mouth are deep, and I think the artist wanted to use them to emphasize the mouth.  More peculiar is that there are also some lines like waves in his forehead to stress his winkles, so the person is vivid and make people feel he is smiling at you.