Page 15 - Ancient Chinese Sculpture 2014, J.J. Lally, New York

10. A S a n c a i - And Blue-Glazed P ottery Figure Of A Courtesan
Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618–907)

shown standing with her hands clasped beneath the pleated folds of her dappled chestnut- and
green-glazed shawl draped over her shoulders and hanging down the front of her long robes
covered with blue, green, chestnut and cream colored glazes splashed freely on the front and back
and falling in vertical stripes to the base, with the upturned toes of her shoes protruding at the hem
of her skirt, her softly rounded face with delicately modelled features accentuated with red and black
pigment over white slip on the unglazed clay, her hair drawn up and gathered in an elaborate double
topknot, showing remains of original black pigment, with traces of encrusted earth from burial.
Height 15 ⁄8 inches (38.5 cm)
1
Provenance J. J. Lally & Co., Chinese Archaic Bronzes, Sculpture and Works of Art, New York,
1992, no. 20

Several similarly modelled Tang sancai-glazed figures of court ladies are known in museum collections, but examples
decorated with blue glaze, which was the most highly prized glaze color in the Tang period, are rare. A similar Tang dynasty
tomb figure of a courtesan from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections was included in The Arts of Ancient China exhibition at
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and illustrated in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, No. 2, New York,
1973/1974, fig. 66.
Compare also the similar Tang dynasty pottery figure of a courtesan shown standing in the same pose with hands clasped
beneath her long shawl, her hair swept up onto a wing-shaped coif, in the Musée Guimet, from the Collection of Michel
Calmann, illustrated by Desroches in Chine: des chevaux et des hommes, Paris, 1995, pp. 158–159, no. 61.

唐 三彩女陶俑 高 38.5 厘米