A PAINTED STRAW-GLAZED POTTERY FIGURE OF AN OFFICIAL

TANG DYNASTY (618-907)

Details

A PAINTED STRAW-GLAZED POTTERY FIGURE OF AN OFFICIAL
TANG DYNASTY (618-907)
Shown standing on a rockwork base with hands clasped in front to hold a hu tablet, wearing an official's cap, a breastplate strapped over his full-sleeved tunic and a long under-robe that falls to the tops of the fan-toed shoes, his face finely modelled with elegant features, with traces of red and black pigment on the yellowish-green-tinged straw glaze
28 in. (71 cm.) high

Lot Essay

A similar straw-glazed figure of an official was excavated from the tomb of the Tang military commander Zheng Rentai buried in 664 AD, a satellite tomb for the mausoleum of the Tang emperor Taizong. In similar fashion, this figure wears the long sleeves of a court official with his hands folded in deference and the jingdeguan or bureaucrat's hat. See James C.Y. Watt et al., China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750 AD, New York, 2004, pp. 292-3, no. 184.

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