A Painted Grey Pottery Figure of a Caparisoned Horse

NORTHERN WEI DYNASTY

Details

A Painted Grey Pottery Figure of a Caparisoned Horse
Northern Wei Dynasty
Finely modeled standing foursquare on a rectangular base with head held high on a thick muscular neck with molded caparisons and a scallop-edged cloth covering the mane, the small saddle resting on a large saddle cloth painted with stirrups, the trappings, saddle and saddle blanket painted in red
9¼in. (23.5cm.) high

Provenance

Christie's, New York, 3 June 1988, lot 187, The Aurelius Parenti Collection

Literature

James Keller, Ancient Chinese Creatures on Parade, Hudson Valley, November 1990, p. 50.

Exhibited

Poughkeepsie, Vassar College Art Gallery, Into the Afterlife, Han and Six Dynasties Chinese Tomb Sculpture from the Schloss Collection, 28 September - 25 November 1990, p. 98, pl. 43.
Greenwich, Bruce Museum, Seeking Immortality: Early Chinese Ceramics from the Schloss Collection, 20 September 1998 - 3 January 1999, no. 111.
Santa Ana, Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, Seeking Immortality: Chinese Tomb Sculpture from the Schloss Collection, 6 October 1996 - 16 March 1997, no. 111.

Lot Essay

The highly sculptural treatment of this noble steed is typical of of Northern Wei horses. The generously proportioned body and the slender legs lends the figure a powerful line. Elegance is provided by the proudly arched neck and sharply defined details of the horse's head. Compare the smaller horse (8¾in.) with elaborately modeled saddle and caparisons in the Cleveland Museum of Art illustrated by Sherman Lee, A History of Far Eastern Art, New York, 1982, p. 253, p. 336. Compare, also, the example sold in these rooms, 20-21 March 1997, lot 369.
The results of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test nos. C299k67 and C97d78 is consistent with the dating of this lot.

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