A PAINTED POTTERY FIGURE OF A FOREIGN DANCER

PROPERTY FROM AN AMERICAN PRIVATE COLLECTION

Details

A PAINTED POTTERY FIGURE OF A FOREIGN DANCER
TANG DYNASTY

The male dancer modeled as if caught in a moment of his dance, with left heel raised and his head turned towards his raised left fist while extending his right arm, wearing a breechcloth and a long shawl criss-crossed in back and draped over his shoulders leaving his bared torso exposed, also wearing a necklace and bangles around his wrists and ankles, his face modeled with foreign features and a large nose framed by his short, curly hair, traces of orangy-red, green and dark brown pigment
13 5/8in. (34.6cm.) high

Provenance

Stephen Junkunc III

Lot Essay

A similar dancer is illustrated by R.L. Hobson in The George Eumorfopoulos Collection Catalogue, vol. I, London, 1925, pl. XXV, no. 197; and another comparable example was included in the exhibition, Tomb Treasures from China, The Buried Art of Ancient X'ian, Asian Art Museum, San Fransico, August 3-October 30, 1994, Catalogue, p. 72, no. 54

For a discussion of foreigners depicted among Tang figures, and in particular of the Kunlun people, the group to which these dancers are conventionally classified, see Schloss, Ancient Chinese Ceramic Sculpture, vol. I, Stamford, Connecticut, 1977, pp. 107-108

The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. 766m67 is consistent with the dating of this lot