Page 50 - September 20 2021 Chinese Works of Art Bonhams NYC

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF LOUISE TAPER
146
A RARE PAIR OF CHINESE PAINTED WOOD FIGURES
Warring States/Western Han Period
Each carved slender figure standing in high-collared robes over inner
garments, gently falling over sloping shoulders into heavily gathered
sleeves over clasped hands to the front and flaring over narrow legs
exposing small shoes, the garments painted overall in black, carmine
and white pigments with stylized scrolls and geometric patterns, each
knife-cut almond shaped head carved with strong features, one with
parted hair brought up and secured by a tie, the other rendered with
hair trailing down the back of the robe, the carved details realistically
rendered.
16 3/4in (42.6cm) and 17 1/2in (44.4cm) high (2).
$15,000 - 25,000
戰國/西漢 彩繪木雕俑一對

Provenance:
Sotheby’s New York, Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1-2 June
1992, lot 446

來源：
蘇富比紐約，1992年6月1-2日，拍品編號446

The earliest recorded secular wood figures have been excavated in
the Changsha area in 1936 in a site linked to the state of Chu. Wood
figures appear to be replacements for earlier customs of sacrificing
servants to serve the deceased in the afterlife. See J.J. Lally & Co.
Two Thousand Years of Chinese Sculpture, March 17 to 29, 2008,
no. 2, for an example of this type. In his extensive footnote, he notes
similar earlier examples in the Princeton Art Museum in Liu, Nylan, and
Barbieri-Low, Recarving China’s Past New Haven, 2005, pp. 238-241,
and Maxwell Hearn and Wen Fong, The Secularization of Art: The
State of Ch’u The Metropolitan Museum of Art Museum Bulletin, No. 2,
1973/74, no. 37.

See also an extraordinary pair identified as Shaman or attendants,
Warring States Period, 4th/3rd Century BCE, Chu culture, currently on
display at the Portland Art Museum, promised gift of Arlene and Harold
Schnitzer.

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