Terracotta Art Analysis

The Terracotta army, is one of the biggest pieces of funerary art every made. Starting 246 BC it took over 40 years to finish and involved over 500,000 workers. Consisting of 10,000 individual terracotta statues. Ranging from army men, to horses, and even chariots, no two pieces were the same. Every statue was different from the one before it. Hyper realistic and no attention detail spared. There faces are believed to have been painted with a type of lacquer however it has flaked and faded over he years. All of the army as well was equipped with real weaponry and armor. This personified the mindset of the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. Obsessed with his own death and what came after. Finished in 210 BC this city of terracotta was buried with the emperor. There it stayed buried until in 1974 a farmer uncovered it. …show more content…
This is an example of how a piece of art can show the human condition and how one perceives themselves in this world. Obsessed with his own death and his after life he created and entire city for himself to ensure that he would thrive even after his death. This shows the utterly frightened he was that he would not be immortalized and even forgotten. This lends itself to the human condition, the fearfulness of the unknown, and what actually happens after death. Even though it was a normal practice for his time to be buried with belongings and even his slaves during his life, the outright immense size of his tomb lends to what his ideas and beliefs