A LARGE PAINTED RED POTTERY FIGURE OF A LOKAPALA

TANG DYNASTY

Details
A LARGE PAINTED RED POTTERY FIGURE OF A LOKAPALA
Tang Dynasty
Modeled treading triumphantly on a struggling bearded demon pinned to a pierced rockwork base, the lokapala with one hand raised to brandish a weapon, the other resting on the left hip, the fleshy face with pronounced eyes and nostrils and a broad mouth detailed in black and red pigment, wearing an elaborate headdress with swan-like neck and wing decoration below a leaf-shaped crest, the short, belted armor with dragon-head epaulets and gilded breast-plate with volutes, traces of gilding and green, red, white and black pigment remaining under areas of encrustation
38¼in. (97cm.) high
Literature
The Tsui Museum of Art, Chinese Ceramics I: Neolithic to Liao, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 113

Lot Essay

While a variety of such red pottery demon-quelling lokapalas exist, this particular example is unusual because of its large size

These lokapalas are depicted in a range of costumes, with particularly detailed and varying epaulets and headdresses, while the idiosyncratic demons are shown in a variety of postures. Similar but smaller examples than the present piece are illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 9, Tokyo, 1961, p. 208, fig. 125; René-Yvon Lefebvre d'Argencé, Chinese Ceramics in the Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco, 1967, p. 52, pl. XXI; Tokyo National Museum, Illustrated Catalogue of Old Oriental Ceramics, Tokyo, 1953, no. 40; and Annette L. Juliano, Bronze, Clay and Stone, Chinese Art in the C. C. Wang Family Collection, Seattle, 1988, no. 60

The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no. C97c83 is consistent with the dating of this lot