TANG DYNASTY (AD 618-907)

As noted in the introductory essay by Rosemary Scott, this pair of spectacular figures of guardians is remarkable for the preservation of the vibrantly painted colors on the garments and the lavish gilding. The tunics and sleeves are boldly painted with luxurious floral designs, in red, blue, green, black and white, along with patterns imitating armor. The designs on the back of the figures are as striking as those on the front, and the combination of the richly designed decorative motifs and the top quality of the molding indicate that these figures were created for a person of great rank and importance. The figures are seen confidently standing on top of a deer and a bull, each with finely rendered musculature and facial features. Very few pairs of painted pottery guardians of this size and quality have survived. A painted pottery guardian figure, elaborately armored but of smaller size (71.1 cm.) than the present figures, is in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, and is illustrated in The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, New York, 1993, p. 293. Another elaborate, but smaller (61 and 55 cm.) pair of painted pottery and gilt guardian figures is illustrated by R. Jacobsen in Celestial Horses and Long Sleeve Dancers, The David W. Dewey Collection of Ancient Chinese Tomb Sculpture, Minneapolis, 2013, pp. 248-49.

Pairs of painted pottery figures of this type, as well as sancai-glazed examples, were placed in the entry corridor of tombs. They were accompanied by pairs of officials and pairs of earth spirits, as evidenced by the location of such figures in the previously undisturbed Tang dynasty tomb of General An Pu discovered at Longmen, Luoyang (See R.L. Thorp, Son of Heaven: Imperial Art of China, Seattle, 1988, pp. 199-205). They are generally modeled with fierce scowling expressions and threatening stances, and they carry on the tradition of the massive stone guardian figures (lishi) that were positioned at the entrances to cave-shrines during the Tang dynasty.

For a large (123 cm.) and imposing sancai figure of this type shown standing on a recumbent bull, see the example illustrated in The Tsui Museum of Art - Chinese Ceramics I: Neolithic to Liao, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 119. See, also, a pair of massive (103 and 96 cm.) sancai pottery guardian figures sold at Christie’s New York, 29 October 2019, lot 1008.

The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no. C198t32 is consistent with the dating of this lot.