A GRAY POTTERY FIGURE OF A CAPARISONED HORSE

細節

A GRAY POTTERY FIGURE OF A CAPARISONED HORSE
NORTHERN WEI DYNASTY

The sturdy horse standing foursquare with head drawn in and mouth open, with a narrow, fringed cloth draped over the top of the crenelated mane, the halter modeled with a horn and circular bosses, with further nippled bosses on the chest strap and pendent trappings on the straps spanning the rump, the flared mud guards incised with stirrups and diagonal markings probably imitating fur, and with further incised hair markings on the knife-cut tail, traces of reddish earth encrustation, restored--10 1/2in. (26.7cm.) long

展覽

Baltimore, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Born of Earth and Fire, Chinese Ceramics from the Scheinman Collection, September 9-November 8, 1992, no. 30

拍品專文

This elaborately caparisoned horse is recognizably that of an important personage. It has been suggested that the trimming of the mane in these notched patterns may be associated with royal ownership in the Tang Dynasty. See Jan Fontein and Tung Wu, Unearthing China's Past, Boston, 1973, pl. 172. The modeling of the mane on this horse shows that this particular style of trimming the mane was already established in the Six Dynasties period. For further discussion of this practice see Sun Ji, "The Equestrian Gear and Ornament of the Tang Dynasty", Chinese Archaeological Abstracts, 4, Post Han, Los Angeles, 1985, pp. 1782-1787, where the author notes that the term for the three tufts of hair in a notched mane is sanhua, and that the practice was already indicated in examples of Qin and Han date

The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. 566n57 is consistent with the dating of this lot