Picture Brick - A Glimpse Into The Past

During the Han Dynasty, artists created bas-relief images upon clay bricks, depicting scenes from mythology, daily life, and cultural events.

Picture Bricks are highly prized both for their artistic beauty and for the cultural and social details they reveal about life in China during the first millennium B.C. They depict important details of a wealthy society and the arts and trades of the times. Though few Picture Bricks survived into modern times; a small number of these amazing works have been preserved through the ages.

Musical and Dancing Band (on the right): This picture brick shows traditional Han style of entertainment. Dancers, singers, and musicians are captured in the act of performing with traditional instruments.

Picture Bricks were often used in tombs as funerary art. Only very wealthy families could afford the luxury of picture bricks; which expressed the social status of the dead. This artform dates from the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.) through the Northern and Southern dynasties (420-589 A.D.). Many extraordinary brick images were found in the Henan, Sichuan, and Jiangsu provinces. Early designs consisted of a simple continuous pattern. As the art form became better developed, picture brick became quite rich and descriptive. At the peak of development, picture bricks included long and colorful scenes depicting daily life. Thus, the preserved images are an important element in the study of ancient Chinese civilization and culture.

Parade (on the left): This is beautiful example of brick art details a musical parade during the Southern Dynasty. Gaily dressed in uniform and performing musical instruments along the parade, the two men blow horns decorated with colorful ribbons. They are closely followed by drummers playing triple pancake drums with their left hands and using their right hands to beat wrist drums. Historians and art experts both treasure these rare finds from the past.