A standing grey pottery figure of a tomb guardian, zhenmuyong


Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 CE)His left hand holding a snake, his right hand grasping a truncheon and his exaggerated tongue hanging between the exposed fangs on a fiercely featured head with bulging eyes and enormous ears as he stands clothed in an animal skin across his shoulder over a three-quarter length tunic and his feet shod in straw sandals (losses, repairs).? 42 1/2in (108cm) high
|Unglazed pottery figures similar to this lot have been excavated from sites associated with Bashu culture of Eastern Han dynasty Sichuan. See the tomb guardian found in 1965 near Chengdu, with similar oversized ears, long tongue, holding a snake and similar implements, included in the exhibition Ancient Sichuan: Treasures from a Lost Civilization (Seattle Art Museum, 2001), no. 118, pp. 306-7 (89cm high).