Lot Essay
Closely comparable female figures with similar hairstyle and costume appear in the wall paintings discovered in the tomb of Princess Yongtai at Liangshan near Xi'an, Shaanxi province, dated 706 A.D. Compare, also, the sancai-glazed pottery figures of seated ladies from Tang burials at Wangjiafen, illustrated by Terukazu Akiyama et al, Arts of China: Recent Discoveries, Tokyo, 1968, nos. 191, 376 and 378.
For other painted wood figures of this type, see Eskenazi, Ancient Chinese sculpture from the Alsdorf collection and others, London, 12 June - 6 July 1990, nos. 6-10; J.J. Lally & Co., Arts of Ancient China, New York, 31 May - 23 June 1990, nos. 14-18; and two others included in the exhibition, Ancient Chinese Sculptural Treasures: Carvings in Wood, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, June 1998, nos. 38 and 40.
Two other wood figures of female attendants wearing long-sleeved robes, but of slightly different type and dated to the Sui dynasty, are in the Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, illustrated by D. Jenkins, Masterworks in Wood: China and Japan, Portland Art Museum, 1976, pp. 28-29, no. 8.
Compare, also, the painted wood figure of a court lady with similar pose and hairstyle sold in these rooms, 2 December 1989, lot 42.
For other painted wood figures of this type, see Eskenazi, Ancient Chinese sculpture from the Alsdorf collection and others, London, 12 June - 6 July 1990, nos. 6-10; J.J. Lally & Co., Arts of Ancient China, New York, 31 May - 23 June 1990, nos. 14-18; and two others included in the exhibition, Ancient Chinese Sculptural Treasures: Carvings in Wood, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, June 1998, nos. 38 and 40.
Two other wood figures of female attendants wearing long-sleeved robes, but of slightly different type and dated to the Sui dynasty, are in the Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, illustrated by D. Jenkins, Masterworks in Wood: China and Japan, Portland Art Museum, 1976, pp. 28-29, no. 8.
Compare, also, the painted wood figure of a court lady with similar pose and hairstyle sold in these rooms, 2 December 1989, lot 42.