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Lot Essay
This impressive pair of painted pottery caparisoned horses is modelled standing foursquare, each robustly potted with powerful musculature and well-balanced proportions. Caparisoned with elaborate trappings, the horses embody the splendour of Northern Qi aristocratic and ceremonial equestrian culture. One horse turns its head sharply to the left on a gracefully arched neck, while the other inclines its head slightly towards its broad chest, creating a composition that is at once animated and restrained. Both horses are rendered with pricked ears, flared nostrils and high-crested forelocks secured with lotus-form ornaments. Their harnesses are embellished with bell pendants, conch-form ornaments and intricately modelled straps, while the broad saddle flaps extend protectively along the flanks. Traces of red pigment remain on the manes, executed with distinctive undulating edges, together with areas of white pigment. The refined modelling and richly articulated details are characteristic of the Yecheng sculptural tradition.
Pottery horse sculpture attained its highest level of development during the Northern Qi dynasty. Horses of this period are distinguished by their rounded and substantial bodies, naturalistic musculature and vigorous stance, reflecting close observation of living animals. Lavishly adorned harnesses featuring leaf-shaped plaques, pendants, tassels and bells, together with broad saddle flaps, evoke the appearance of ceremonial horses employed in elite funerary and courtly processions. As important components of tomb assemblages, such figures were buried alongside equestrian attendants, musicians and other processionary figures to signify the status and authority of the deceased.
A related painted pottery horse was excavated in 1971 from the tomb of Fan Cui, Governor of Liangzhou, at Anyang, Henan Province. According to the epitaph, the tomb is dated to the sixth year of the Wuping period (AD 575); see Henan Anyang Beiqi Fan Cui Mu Fajue Jianbao, Wenwu, vol. 1, 1972, no. 25. While sharing the same sculptural tradition, the present pair is distinguished by its more elaborate trappings and markedly greater sense of monumentality.
Compare also a painted pottery horse of closely related form and decorative treatment in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, accession no. 2004.205.2 (fig. 1). Further comparison may be made with two painted earthenware horses from the Eskenazi Collection, illustrated in Six Dynasties Art from the Norman A. Kurland Collection, Part One, London, 2017, cat. no. 34.
Pottery horse sculpture attained its highest level of development during the Northern Qi dynasty. Horses of this period are distinguished by their rounded and substantial bodies, naturalistic musculature and vigorous stance, reflecting close observation of living animals. Lavishly adorned harnesses featuring leaf-shaped plaques, pendants, tassels and bells, together with broad saddle flaps, evoke the appearance of ceremonial horses employed in elite funerary and courtly processions. As important components of tomb assemblages, such figures were buried alongside equestrian attendants, musicians and other processionary figures to signify the status and authority of the deceased.
A related painted pottery horse was excavated in 1971 from the tomb of Fan Cui, Governor of Liangzhou, at Anyang, Henan Province. According to the epitaph, the tomb is dated to the sixth year of the Wuping period (AD 575); see Henan Anyang Beiqi Fan Cui Mu Fajue Jianbao, Wenwu, vol. 1, 1972, no. 25. While sharing the same sculptural tradition, the present pair is distinguished by its more elaborate trappings and markedly greater sense of monumentality.
Compare also a painted pottery horse of closely related form and decorative treatment in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, accession no. 2004.205.2 (fig. 1). Further comparison may be made with two painted earthenware horses from the Eskenazi Collection, illustrated in Six Dynasties Art from the Norman A. Kurland Collection, Part One, London, 2017, cat. no. 34.