China. Head of a soldier used as a funerary statuette (mingqi), also known as a stickman. Grey terracotta and flesh-coloured slip with remains of black paint on the hair. China. Early Han period (206 BC - 9 AD). H. 11.5 cm (excluding base). Old chips on the back. Beautifully expressive An army of more than 6,000 comparable infantrymen was discovered in the 1990s in the mausoleum of the Jingdi emperor (157-141 BC) in Yangling. See the exhibition catalogue Splendeurs des Han, essor de l'empire céleste, Musée national des arts asiatiques-Guimet, 2014, p. 71-75. In France, similar examples are kept at the Cernuschi and Guimet museums, cf. G. Béguin, Le Petit peuple des tombes, Paris musées, 2010, p. 28-29.