Model of a Two-Story Structure, Eastern Han dynasty, 25–220 CE. Brick-red earthenware with green lead glaze, 51.6 × 33.5 × 11.5 cm. Art Institute of Chicago, Lucy Maud Buckingham Collection, 1924.223.

Burial models attest to the prevalence of multistoried buildings in early imperial China. This two-story structure, simply constructed of clay slabs, has a tile roof and an openwork balcony supported by brackets. Such realistic details are modified by imaginative “squatting-bear” feet. This model may depict a granary, or it may have been assembled with other clay structures to form a residential compound.