Page 93 - March 23, 2022 Sotheby's NYC Fine Chinese Works of Art

Horses have long been a symbol of status and wealth. The in and how prized these magnificent horses of Ferghana
representation of a large important pair of distinct and were at the Tang court. It is rare to find two large Tang
desirable coloration such as the present example, reflect the horses of sancai-glazed pottery modeled in this way as a
high rank and importance of the owner and his family. An complementary pair, with differently colored coats, one
edict issued in 667 decreed that ownership of horses as an amber, the other cream, but otherwise identically sculpted, of
aristocratic privilege, forbidding artisans and tradesmen this the same powerful build, angle of the head and modeling of
right. the face, and with the musculature identically rendered. Very
Emperor Taizong had portraits of his six favorite battle few examples of glazed pairs of horses have been published.
chargers carved in stone, the Zhaoling Liujun. Each horse is A pair in the Kyoto National Museum, Kyoto, one with a
described by its noble deeds in battle and by its color: bay, dappled coat and the other black-glazed is illustrated in
deep brown, bright chestnut, bay with a white mouth, pale Mayuyama Seventy Years, vol. I, Tokyo, 1976, nos 197 and 198
gray, and black with white hooves. The Emperor Xuanzong and again in Sekai Toji Zenshu, Shogakukan Series, vol. 11, col.
displayed equal passion for his mounts commissioning pl. 192. Another magnificent pair of sancai horses of similar
paintings from the famed artist Han Gan (c. 706-783). In the size, one in black, the other in ‘strawberry roan’, complete
Lidai minghua ji (‘Record of famous painters of all periods’; with saddles and trappings, was sold in these rooms, 27th
847), Zhang Yanyuan noted that Emperor Xuanzong ‘loved March 2003, lot 36 and again, 17th September 2013, lot 45.
large horses and ordered Han to paint the most noble of his Compare a pair of horses of larger size, one covered in a
more than 400,000 steeds’, six of these, all bred from the yellowish-brown glaze and the other in yellowish-white and
famed Ferghana stock in Central Asia are described by their green glaze, reputed to have been excavated from the tomb
respective colors: red, purple, scarlet, yellow, ‘clove’ , and of General Liu Tingxun (d. 728) in Luoyang, Henan province,
‘peach-flower’ colored, respectively. The most famous of later in the collection of George Eumorfopoulos and now in
which is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the British Museum, London (accession nos 1936,1012.226
‘Night-shining White’ (Zhaoyebai) and attributed to the artist. and 1936,1012.227), illustrated in Neil MacGregor, A History
Indeed, it is easy to speculate that Han Gan’s distinctive of the World in 100 Objects, New York, 2011, pp 354-5. See
style which captures the animals in spirited movement, also a brown-glazed horse, of similar size to the present
emphasizing their powerful, rounded and muscular forms pair, preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
while retaining an easy naturalism, influenced the artisans (accession no. 51.66), included in the Museum’s exhibition
who sculpted the present pair. Arts of Ancient China, New York, 2005.
The splendid physical appearance of the present pair The dating of this lot is consistent with the results of Oxford
is enhanced by the fact that, in contrast to most other Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence tests nos C122b67
Tang horses of this stature, they are represented without and C122b68.
harnessing, saddles or trappings. They appear free, full of
vitality, encapsulating the esteem which they were held

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