China, Northern Qi dynasty (550–577) / 550–577
Sections of a Coffin Platform
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Sections of a Coffin Platform as sculpture (China, Northern Qi dynasty (550–577) · 550–577).
The two horizontal and three vertical stones together form one long side of a coffin platform in a tomb.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this sculpture as limestone.
The museum's collection notes: This richly ornamented stone construction is the long, front side of a coffin platform ultimately derived from raised wooden beds that are still popular in China today. Now in five pieces (presumably cut to facilitate transportation after it was excavated in the 1900s), the three legs and horizontal spans may have originally been created as a single massive slab. Sockets cut in the top of the stone (some of which overlap the modern divisions) show how this slab would have been linked to the back with crosspieces also capable of supporting a top surface of flat stone planks. Like the few examples discovered intact in northern Chinese aristocra
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtSections of a Coffin PlatformOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.