JIN DYNASTY (1115-1234)

A group of four related painted pottery tiles with musicians and performers from the Shanxi Museum are illustrated by James C.Y. Watt in The World of Khubilai Khan, Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty, New York, 2010, p. 53, figs. 64-67. The author notes that during the Jin and Yuan dynasties in Dadu, the capital of the empire, a culture of art and entertainment prevailed, with many holidays and celebrations. Great processions and parades with a multitude of performers are recorded, although visual records of such events have not survived. Like the performers seen in the set cited above, the elegant entertainers within the tiles of the present set would have likely been visual references to contemporary performances.

For another related tile with a male dancer see Theater, Life, and Afterlife: Tomb Décor of the Jin Dynasty from Shanxi, New York, 2012, no. 26.