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Lot Essay
While the spirit roads leading to imperial, royal or aristocratic burial grounds are traditionally lined with stone sculptures of monumental scale, it is extremely rare to find medium-sized stone sculpture of the Tang period such as the present lot, whether of humans or animals, in tombs or above ground. Related figures have been recorded in the vicinity of Shaanxi province. Four figures of different attendants standing on similary square plinths excavated from the tomb of Zheng Rentai, one of the satellite tombs of Zhaoling, the mausoleum of Emperior Tang Taizong in Liquan county, outside Xi'an, which is dated to 664, are illustrated in Wenwu, 1972:7, p. 42, fig. 15 (3 and 4).
A very similar example, from the collection of Tonying & Company, Inc., was sold at Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 14 - 15 April, 1954, lot 340, and later entered the C. C. Wang Family Collection, when it was published by A. L. Juliano, Bronze, Clay and Stone: Chinese Art in the C. C. Wang Family Collection, Seattle, 1988, no. 73. It was subsequently sold at Sotheby's, New York, 27 November 1990, lot 46. This figure of a male attendant is now in The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington D.C., accession no. S1996.37.
Another related stone figure dressed in a different coat, from the J. T. Tai Foundation, was sold at Sotheby's, New York, 3 June 1985, lot 4, and one of a groom, formerly in the collection of Jay C. Leff was sold at Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 30 October, 1958, lot 188. Similarly attired figures are depicted in wall paintings in various tombs of the Tang imperial family outside Xi'an, and are also seen in glazed pottery examples such as the two figures illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji; gongyi meishu bian; taoci (2), Shanghai, 1988, nos. 81 and 82.
A very similar example, from the collection of Tonying & Company, Inc., was sold at Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 14 - 15 April, 1954, lot 340, and later entered the C. C. Wang Family Collection, when it was published by A. L. Juliano, Bronze, Clay and Stone: Chinese Art in the C. C. Wang Family Collection, Seattle, 1988, no. 73. It was subsequently sold at Sotheby's, New York, 27 November 1990, lot 46. This figure of a male attendant is now in The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington D.C., accession no. S1996.37.
Another related stone figure dressed in a different coat, from the J. T. Tai Foundation, was sold at Sotheby's, New York, 3 June 1985, lot 4, and one of a groom, formerly in the collection of Jay C. Leff was sold at Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 30 October, 1958, lot 188. Similarly attired figures are depicted in wall paintings in various tombs of the Tang imperial family outside Xi'an, and are also seen in glazed pottery examples such as the two figures illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji; gongyi meishu bian; taoci (2), Shanghai, 1988, nos. 81 and 82.