A painted red pottery female polo player astride a galloping horse

TANG DYNASTY

Details

A painted red pottery female polo player astride a galloping horse
Tang Dynasty
The spirited horse covered in a white slip and modelled in full gallop with all four legs extended and in the air, the rider seated firmly in her saddle with feet stretched forward in the stirrups, her body twisted to the left at the waist and dressed in a long orange-red tight-fitting tunic above brown boots, the arms positioned to strike, the softly modelled face detailed in red and black pigment on a white slip beneath the black hair drawn up into a knot
39.5 cm. long, wood stand

Lot Essay

This figure is closely related to the well-known group of four female polo players in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, referred to in the Handbook of the Collections, Kansas City, 1959, p. 208; cf. als M. Medley Tang Pottery and Porcelain, pl. 41, p. 51; compare further the polo-player exhibited at the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1935-6, Catalogue, pl. 2432, p. 223.

The result of thermoluminescence test, Brussels Art Laboratory nr. 2000 (64/668), is consistent with the dating of this lot.

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