Early Tang dynasty The well-modelled sturdy horse standing foursquare with head raised, upright ears, deeply-cut lidded eyes, flaring nostrils and slightly open mouth, the gray body is painted in an ochre pigment that veers to orange in places and the saddle area is left un-decorated, the male rider and saddle are separately modelled in one free-standing piece that figs snuggly on the horses body, he sits upright with one hand held in the motion of holding a rein, he wears simple garments, his face so lifelike he appears to stare forward seemingly absorbed in his own thoughts, the figure is painted with a thin white pigment with traces of red and black highlights. 17 1/2in (44.5cm) high,转到 Chinese Works of Art Go
注脚:唐早期 彩繪騎馬陶俑Provenance:Christie's, New York, Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 27 November 1991, lot 300來源:佳士得紐約，1991年11月27日，拍品編號300The modelling of the horse and especially its delicate and realistic head, as well as the position in which its head is held, is similar to that of the horse in a glazed equestrian group excavated in 1971 from the tomb of Prince Yide in Qian County, Shaanxi province, included in the exhibition The Quest for Eternity, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1987, no. 72.For another example of this rare model but depicting a female rider, See Christie's, Los Angeles, Treasures of the Tang, 4 December 1998, lot 17, formerly in the Ezekiel Schloss Collection. Three others are published, see Suzanne Valenstein, The Herzman Collection of Chinese Ceramics, Hong Kong, 1992, p. 21, fig. 11; He Li, Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1996, p. 100, fig. 184 and listed as from Shaanxi or Henan; and the Rijksmuseum, Bulletin, Amsterdam, 1966, p. 24, pl. 4, no.1. For a slightly larger free-standing gray pottery figure of a man seated on a saddle, presumably intended for a horse similar to ours and now separated, see J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art, Chinese Archaic Bronzes, Sculpture and Works of Art,, June 1992, New York, 1994, no. 17. It is possible that these two early and extremely rare sculptures where modelled in the same workshop.For another larger example of a lady equestrian, possibly modelled in one piece, rather than separately, see Sotheby's, Hong Kong, Important Chinese Ceramics, 31 October 1974, lot 110, where it is dated to the Wei dynasty rather than to early in the Tang. Three others, illustrated in Collection of Chinese and Other Far Eastern Art, Assembled by Yamanaka & Company, Inc., Alien Property Custodian of the United States of America, New York, 1943, no. 469, 477 and 479, are also dated to the Wei dynasty.The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. 566u65 is consistent with the dating of this lot.