Page 247 - Christie's Fine Chinese Paintings March 19 2019 Auction

This charming group of four theatrical fgures is a known type from Henan Three related fgures are illustrated in The Quest for Eternity, Los Angeles
and Shanxi provinces. Each fgure was carved from a brick of heavy clay, County Museum of Art, 1987, pp. 147-48, nos. 92-94, where it is noted that
rather than fred in a mold. They represent zaju, or ‘mixed drama’ performers, such performers would have been placed within small, carved brick models
a genre of entertainment that was popular as early as the Tang dynasty of theatrical stages. Other related pottery performers are illustrated in
and through the Yuan dynasty, when depictions of this type of performer Theatre, Life, and the Afterlife: Tomb Décor of the Jin Dynasty from Shanxi,
also appear on blue and white porcelain jars (see Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 New York, 2012, nos. 53-54.
November 2005, lot 1403). 宋 陶樂俑一組四件

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