Page 194 - Christies Fine Chinese Works of Art March 2016 New York

1475 This superbly modeled horse ranks amongst the fnest of this group of
Northern Wei grey pottery horse fgures. This horse and others like it
AN EXCEPTIONAL PAINTED GREY POTTERY FIGURE OF A refect the type of idealized horse and the type of trappings that were
CAPARISONED HORSE popular during the Wei dynasty. The same type of horse and trappings
NORTHERN WEI DYNASTY (AD 386-534) are depicted in a drawing of a caparisoned horse carved on a stone relief
dated to the Northern dynasties illustrated by Sun Ji in Wenwu, 1981:10,
The horse is very fnely modeled with a graceful, arched neck and a pp. 82-88, 96, ‘The Equestrian Gear and Ornament of the Tang Dynasty’,
small, tapered head crisply detailed with fared nostrils, open mouth, and translated with a reproduced illustration by Dien, Riegel and Price in
pricked ears, and a bridle with a central, braided Y-shaped strap set Chinese Archaeological Abstracts, vol. 4, Los Angeles, 1984, p. 1785, fg. 4
with a medallion and a palmette on the muzzle. The chest is spanned (1). This elegant horse is also similar to one illustrated by V. Bower et al., in
by a tassel-hung strap, and the rump is protected by leather strapwork the exhibition catalogue Brush/Clay/Wood: The Nancy and Ed Rosenthal
armor hung with tassels and set with bosses at the interstices. The Collection of Chinese Art, Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, Ohio, 7 November
back is draped with a red cloth with fringed ends set atop a fared mud 2008 - 11 January 2009, p. 26, fg. 10, no. 9. See, also, the two similar horses
guard combed with markings in imitation of fur. There are extensive illustrated in Ausstellung Chinesischer Kunst, Berlin, 1929, p. 125, no. 279.
traces of red and green pigment on the trappings.
The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. 466k55 is consistent with
9Ω in. (24.2 cm.) high the dating of this lot.

$50,000-70,000 北魏 彩繪灰陶馬

PROVENANCE

Aurelius Parenti Collection; Christie’s New York, 3 June 1988, lot
186.
Gisèle CroSs, 1988.

LITERATURE

Gisèle CroSs, Paris Biennale, 22 September - 9 October 1988, no. 9.

(another view) (detail)

192