A Very Rare Pair of Large Painted Wood Figures of Attendants

EASTERN ZHOU DYNASTY

细节

A Very Rare Pair of Large Painted Wood Figures of Attendants
Eastern Zhou Dynasty
Each tall stylized figure simply carved wearing a long robe tied above the waist with a sash reverse-decorated with dots and with long tasseled ends trailing down the skirt subtly painted with four large squares of different tone, one with arms held forward and socketed for the insertion of forearms, the other with arms folded in front as if the hands are concealed within the sleeves, the angular faces with small nose, planular cheeks and arched brows, the features painted in red and the hair in black, the ears pierced, with traces of pink pigment on the faces
22½in. (57.2cm.) high, lucite case (3)

拍品专文

The practice of burying wood figures began in the Eastern Zhou dynasty and flourished in the Kingdom of Chu (740-330 B.C.). A large number of wood figures have been excavated from Chu tombs in Changsha, Hunan. See Wenwu 1982:6, p. 78.

Compare the very similar wood figures, also painted with a broad 'checkerboard' design on the garment, unearthened at Wuchangyidi, Jiangling, Hubei province. As in the present lot, these figures are shown with their hands held either at the midriff or raised to their chest. See Teng Rensheng, Lacquer Wares of the Chu Kingdom, Hong Kong, 1992, p. 109, fig. 32:1-4.

Another closely related figure was included in the exhibition, Early Chinese art: 8th century BC - 9th century AD, Eskenazi, London, 6 June - 8 July 1995, no. 45.

More angular and perhaps slightly more abstract examples, from this period are illustrated by Fontein and Wu, Unearthing China's Past, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1973, pp.72-73, nos. 23-26.