Page 510 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

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Painted marble relief of attendants

Height 82 (31), width 136 (53)
Later Liang Dynasty, tenth century CE (907 - 923)
From the tomb of Wang Chuzhi at Xiyanchuan,
Quyang, Hebei Province

Hebei Provincial Cultural Relics Institute,
Shijiazhuang

Together with a matching scene of female musi-
cians (cat. 175), this painted marble relief 1 framed
the coffin in the rear chamber of Wang Chuzhi's
tomb. Both measure 82 by 136 centimeters. The
composition of this painted stone relief is similar
to that of earlier depictions of attendants carrying
items of daily life into the coffin chamber to ensure
the well-being of the tomb's occupant. One of the
best known of these earlier depictions is a proces-
sion of women in the tomb of Princess Yongtai,
2
dated 7o6. The women in such compositions carry
feather fans, dishes, cups, cosmetic boxes, fans, and
other useful domestic items. Their bodies lean for-
ward as they walk in a slow, rhythmic procession.
One of the interesting features in this composition
is the tiny figure that leads the slow parade.
Dressed in male clothing and carrying a small vase
resting on a cloth, he is sometimes identified as a
dwarf, but he could also be a child (two tiny figures
in the facing relief present a similar problem of
identification). The thirteen women behind him are
in four rows of three abreast; one figure in the rear
mirrors the small person at the front.
Despite their seeming fixed positions, the
women are engaged in a subtle interplay. Turned
toward the right, the nearest woman in the front
group of three holds out her left hand and deli-
cately defers to the woman in the right front corner,
who has stepped out of the last rank to come for-
ward with a tray holding a porcelain cup. As she
moves forward, the women adjacent look toward
her, further calling our attention to this choreo-
graphed sequence of movements. This kind of slow,
deferential choreography is also evident in the
painted procession in the tomb of Princess Yongtai,