
- Roof tile
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Roof tile
- Place of origin:
China (made)
- Date:
1500-1644 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown
- Materials and Techniques:
Stoneware, with lead glazes
- Museum number:
C.392-1912
- Gallery location:
Ceramics, Room 137, The Curtain Foundation Gallery, case 8, shelf 1
In Asia, the roof, by virtue of its position on a building, is deemed a point of communication between heaven and earth. It is a bridge to the world of spirits and a platform for them to descend to earth. Chinese builders sought to harness auspicious spiritual forces and repel evil spirits with applied ornamentation freighted with symbolic meaning. On roofs the most common decoration was tiling. The Ming dynasty was a flourishing period for tile production. The horse was frequently one of a sequence of creatures shown on ridge tiles. It is one of the beasts of the Chinese zodiac.