A Group of Three Painted Pottery Acrobats

HAN DYNASTY

細節

A Group of Three Painted Pottery Acrobats
Han Dynasty
The three figures in a vertical formation with the first figure with arms raised to support the second figure in a handstand, the third figure also in a handstand grasping the feet of the second, with traces of red and white pigment
15.1/8in. (38.5cm.) high overall, perspex stand (3)

展覽

Greenwich, Bruce Museum, Seeking Immortality: Early Chinese Ceramics from the Schloss Collection, 20 September 1998 - 3 January 1999, no. 158.

拍品專文

Based on the various types of figures found in Han dynasty tombs, entertainers of all kinds including musicians, dancers, story tellers and acrobats, played a very important part in court life of the Han period. Small figures of acrobats similar to the present figures can be seen doing handstands on the edges of lian. See the example with three acrobats forming a pyramid atop a lian unearthed in 1972, Luoyang City, Henan province, included in the exhibition, Treasures from the Han, The Empress Place, Singapore, 1990, p. 101; and another with two acrobats balanced on the edge sold in these rooms, 3 June 1993, lot 154.

The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. 866c41 is consistent with the dating of this lot.