A Pair of Painted Grey Pottery Earth Spirits

TANG DYNASTY

Details

A Pair of Painted Grey Pottery Earth Spirits
Tang Dynasty
The two shown seated on layered rockwork with left leg extended and foot braced against an outcropping as they wrestle with a serpent, the one with humanoid face stretching the serpent between its hands, the other with leonine face with forearm raised as it tries to uncoil the serpent from the rock, with foliate decoration on the chests, painted in red, black, white and pink
18 and 15½in. (45.7 and 39.4cm.) high

Lot Essay

A pair with similar ferocious aspect and posture is illustrated by Warren E. Cox, The Book of Pottery and Porcelain, vol. I, New York, 1944, p. 115, pl. 31. See another pair on higher sculpted bases, but with one of the two also wrestling with a serpent, illustrated in The Tsui Museum of Art; Chinese Ceramics I, Neolithic to Liao, Hong Kong, 1993, no. 115.

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