TANG DYNASTY (618-906)

细节

two large painted pottery figures of court ladies
Tang Dynasty (618-906)
Each standing and looking slightly to one side, holding their arms up and across the chest, the hands hidden within long broad sleeves, the toes of the shoes exposed under the flowing hem of the long shawl, the full-cheeked softly-modelled face with traces of pink and black pigmented details remaining surrounded by the hair dressed with stiff wings and surmounted by an asymmetrical top-knot, some restoration
22 in. (56 cm.) and 24¼ in. (62 cm.) high (2)

注意事项

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拍品专文

The details of these two large Tang court ladies are very finely rendered, and with freely modelled forearms that extend out slightly from the body. A similar figure represented in a slightly different attitude and with hair tied in a central bun, is illustrated in Masterpieces of Chinese and Korean Ceramics in the Ataka Collection: China, col. pl. 3; and another in Maruyama: Seventy Years, vol. I, pl. 178. A slightly larger figure was sold in London, 12 December 1989, lot 187.

Compare also other court lady figures standing in similar pose but with arms not freely modelled, one excavated from tomb no. 131 at Gaolou village near Xian, Shaanxi province, included in the exhibition The Quest for Eternity, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1987, catalogue, no. 84; another in the Exhibition of Chinese Ceramics: The Heeramaneck Collection, also in Los Angeles, 1973, catalogue no. 28.
Ladies in similar costumes and hair styles are depicted in contemporary paintings, for example in a handscroll entitled 'Ladies Whiling Away Summer Hours' by Zhou Fang, who was active between c. 750 and c. 804, illustrated by Wang-go Weng and Yang Boda, The Palace Museum: Treasures of the Forbidden City, p. 155 (top), p. 156 (bottom), and col. pl. 80.

The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence analsis test nos. C101j62 and C101j63, are consistent with the dating of this lot.