This apparently austere attendant stands in a typical pose of deference with hands tucked into the sleeves of a long, flowing robe with a lapel pulled across from the left and fastened on the right. Poking out at the collar is a roll of fabric of the warm undergarments, decorated in red against the lighter hue of the outer robe.
The facial features, and particularly the eyes and lips, are executed with great delicacy, the hair is pulled back from the face and worn long at the back.
The most impressive feature in an otherwise very sombre figurine is the widely flaring skirt, narrowing and becoming rather tight, then suddenly cascading outwards, a distinctive characteristic of early Han figural art. Of all the many styles of "ming qi" known from the Han dynasty period, terracotta models of court attendants such as this are renowned as being of particularly high artistic quality.
Such figurines clearly demonstrate a good number of the classic attributes of the Han style such as simplicity and a great sense of symmetry in forms.