TANG DYNASTY (AD 618-907)

Music and dance were highly popular at the Tang court, and the costumes and coiffures of these musicians and dancers reflect the fashion for women during the Tang dynasty. A painted pottery group of ten seated female musicians and a pair of standing figures shown in the midst of sleeve-tossing dance gestures, is illustrated by R. Hayashi in The Silk Road and the Shoso-in, New York/Tokyo, 1975, p. 96, no. 103. See, also, the two painted pottery seated female musicians wearing similar clothing to that of the current figures and with their hair also arranged in double topknots, in the Avery Brundage Collection, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated by W. Watson, Tang and Liao Ceramics, New York, 1984, p. 213 nos. 246 and 248.