A WELL-MODELLED PAINTED GREY POTTERY FIGURE OF A STRIDING CAPARISONED HORSE

EASTERN WEI DYNASTY (534-550)

Details

A WELL-MODELLED PAINTED GREY POTTERY FIGURE OF A STRIDING CAPARISONED HORSE
EASTERN WEI DYNASTY (534-550)
Shown striding on a trapezoidal base, the well-modelled figure with sensitively detailed face, the rich trappings including a bridle, a rope tied around the top of the arched neck, large tassels on the chest strap, and a long saddle cloth gathered either side atop the flared mud guards, traces of orangish-ochre, red, pink and white pigments
14½ in. (36.7 cm.) high, lucite stand

Lot Essay

Stylistically, the present horse is similar to one unearthed in Cixian, Hebei province in 1979 from the tomb of an Eastern Wei princess of the Ruru nationality. See Wenwu, 1984:4, pl. 5, fig. 2, and p. 6, fig. 7, no. 3, for a line drawing of the horse. Compare, also, two other similar Eastern Wei horses, one in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University, illustrated by V. Bower and R. Mowry, From Court to Caravan: Chinese Tomb Sculptures from the Collection of Anthony M. Solomon, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2002, p. 92, no. 19; and one included in Early Dynastic China: Works of Art from Shang to Song, J. J. Lally & Co., New York, 26 March - 26 April 1996, no. 5.

The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no. C102u97 is consistent with the dating of this lot.

More from Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art

View All