Editing Xianbei (section)

===Animal iconography===
[[File:Flying Horse plaque, Xianbei culture, Inner Mongolia province, China, Eastern Han dynasty, 1st century BC to 1st century AD, silver repousse - Portland Art Museum - Portland, Oregon - DSC08648.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|left|Flying Horse plaque, Xianbei culture, Inner Mongolia province, China. 1st century BC to 1st century AD.]]

Another key form of Xianbei art is animal iconography, which was implemented primarily in metalwork. The Xianbei stylistically portrayed crouching animals in geometricized, abstracted, repeated forms, and distinguished their culture and art by depicting animal predation and same-animal combat. Typically, sheep, deer, and horses were illustrated. The artifacts, usually plaques or pendants, were made from metal, and the backgrounds were decorated with openwork or mountainous landscapes, which harks back to the Xianbei nomadic lifestyle. With repeated animal imagery, an openwork background, and a rectangular frame, the included image of the three deer plaque is a paradigm of the Xianbei art style. Concave plaque backings imply that plaques were made using [[lost-wax casting]], or raised designs were impressed on the back of hammered metal sheets.<ref name=nomadic>{{cite book |last1=Bunker |first1=Emma C. |first2=Zhixin |last2=Sun |title=Nomadic Art of the Eastern Eurasian Steppes: The Eugene V. Thaw and Other New York Collections |via=Google Books |editor-first=James |editor-last=Watt |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2002 |isbn=0-300-09688-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QR4i-SwdhsoC }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Psarras |first=Sophia-Karin |title=Han and Xiongnu: A Reexamination of Cultural and Political Relations (I) |journal=Monumenta Serica |volume=51 |pages=55–236 |year=2003 |doi=10.1080/02549948.2003.11731391 |jstor=40727370 |s2cid=156676644 }}</ref>