TANG DYNASTY (AD 618-907)

Details

A PAINTED RED POTTERY FIGURE OF AN OX AND CART
TANG DYNASTY (AD 618-907)
The ox, with a pronounced hump and dewlap, stands foursqaure with head facing forward and modeled with a harness terminating in leaf appliqués at the neck. The cart is modeled with arched roof projecting at either end to protect a doorway in the back and an enclosure in front set before a series of molded vertical slats. The sides are pierced with three holes centering painted decoration; with a pair of separate, spoked wheels.
Ox 8½in. (21.6cm.) long, cart 9 ¾in. (24.8cm.) long, wood stand

Provenance

The Hardy Collection of Early Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art from the Sze Yuan Tang Collection; Christie's New York, 21 September 1995, lot 76.

Exhibited

Fairfield Connecticut, Ballarmine Museum of Art, Fairfield University, Immortality of the Spirit, 12 March-7 June 2012.

Lot Essay

For an earlier bronze prototype, featuring a cart with a similar sloping, divided roof, dating to the Northern Dynasties, see Zhongguo wenwu jinghua (Gems of China's Cultural Relics), Beijing, 1993, no. 98. See, also, a dark brown-glazed cart of similar form shown with an ox and two figures, dated to the Six dynasties period, illustrated by J. Rawson, The British Museum Book of Chinese Art, New York, 1992, p. 144, fig. 92.

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