Form, built
layer by layer.

Discover Chinese dry-lacquer sculpture: its materials, history and living craft.

中国干漆夹苎：技艺、历史与传承

Illustrative study · 材料示意

Lacquer. Cloth. Form.

In dry-lacquer sculpture, cloth and lacquer help build a body that can be shaped and decorated. Some works retain a wooden core; others are hollow.

漆与织物逐层构成造像。不同作品的胎体、材料与制作方法各有区别。

Binds and coats the layers.

Supports the lacquer body.

Shaped, refined and decorated.

c. 590

The Walters Buddha preserves a wooden core beneath its lacquer surface.

7th century

The Met Buddha offers an early example of hollow dry-lacquer construction.

Today

In Tiantai, practitioners continue making sculpture and teaching the craft.

Walters Art Museum · 25.9 · c. 590

How an assembled wooden body supports a lacquer figure.

The Met · 19.186 · Early 7th century

What material examination reveals beneath the decorated surface.

Meet Tang Chunfu and explore the making, documentation and teaching of dry-lacquer and ramie sculpture in Tiantai.

从汤春甫的制作与教学，走近今天的天台山干漆夹苎技艺。