A RARE MOLDED YUEYAO FUNERARY JAR AND A COVER, HUNPING

THREE KINGDOMS/WESTERN JIN DYNASTY

Details

A RARE MOLDED YUEYAO FUNERARY JAR AND A COVER, HUNPING
Three Kingdoms/Western Jin Dynasty
The well-potted ovoid body applied with rows of molded decoration including seated Buddhas, turtles, dragons, male and female phoenixes, cockerels, qilin, lama-like creatures, and bearded Central Asian equestrians with soft caps, the ridged shoulder supporting a three-tiered temple entrance flanked on either side by a pagoda containing a seated Buddha, and encircled by mischievious monkeys and bearded Central Asian entertainers at various pursuits including juggling, playing the flute, strumming on the pipa, singing, fishing and preparing food, the tall, tapering neck applied with globular pots and numerous birds below the lipped rim
19in. (48.3cm.) high

Exhibited

Hong Kong, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Thirty-fifth Anniversary Exhibition of the Min Chiu Society, In Pursuit of Antiquities, 22 December 1995 - 18 February 1996, no. 76

Lot Essay

Large jars such as these have been found in numerous tombs of the Three Kingdoms (Wu) and Western Jin dynasties in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. For a detailed discussion and the chronology of dating for this group, refer to the exhibition Catalogue by Y. Mino and R. Tsiang, Ice and Green Clouds, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1987, p. 74, no. 24, where the authors discuss the possibility that the jars with architectural elements which are not as closely intergrated with the vessel (placed around the outside of it) are perhaps earlier examples. They also discuss the possible derivation of these burial urns from the five-spouted jars of the late Han period.

Compare the very similar jar with related entertainers around the galleried rim excavated in 1972 from Jiangsu province, now in the Jiangsu Provincial Museum and dated to A.D. 276, illustrated in Zhongguo Meishu Quanji; Diaosu Bian (The Great Treasury of Chinese Fine Arts; Sculpture), Beijing, 1988, vol. 3, p. 6, no. 7. Another comparable jar, with Buddhist figures, mythical beasts and monkeys, is illustrated in Zhongguo Taoci Daxi; Gudai Taoci Daquan, Taipei, 1989, p. 350.