A PAIR OF PAINTED STRAW-GLAZED POTTERY FIGURES OF EARTH SPIRITS

Details

A PAIR OF PAINTED STRAW-GLAZED POTTERY FIGURES OF EARTH SPIRITS
SUI DYNASTY

Each shown seated on a shaped base, their bodies boldly painted in black and red with hair-like markings, stripes, spots, wings rising from the front haunches, flames on the flanks and scrolls on the rear legs and below the curved spines projecting from the backbone, one with human face surmounted by a crest of upswept hair, the other with leonine countenance, its mouth open in a roar, and with a pair of horns curving back from the brow, one with traces of turquoise pigment--14 3/4in. (37.5cm.) high (2)

Lot Essay

Tomb figures with pale yellowish or straw-colored glaze appeared in the Sui Dynasty. They continued to be made in the early Tang until the advent of the brilliant three-color glaze, or sancai funerary wares. This pair of elaborately painted gurardian figures has a great deal in common with the group of four hundred and sixty-six glazed and beautifully painted figures found in the tomb of Zheng Rentai, dated 664 A.D., Mazhaicun, Liquanxian, Shaanxi province. Included among the contents of the tomb are two guardian figures, one with human head and one with leonine head, quite similar to the present pair. See Wenwu 1972, no.7, p.35, figs. 6 and 7, and pl. IV. See also, The Quest for Eternity--Chinese Ceramic Sculptures from the People's Republic of China (Los Angeles, 1987), p. 130, for a description of the Zheng Rentai tomb