Beschreibung:

Katalognummer: CA0420-249 A LARGE PAINTED RED POTTERY FIGURE OF A COURT LADY, TANG DYNASTY China, 618-907. The lady is shown standing with her body elegantly swayed to one side as her head is raised inquisitively towards the visitor. Her hands, held in front of her chest, are distinctively modeled in fine detail whereas the voluminous sleeves of her robe fall down in voluminous folds. Her hair is dressed in an elaborate coiffure. Remnants of pigment. Provenance: An Austrian private collection. Galerie Zacke, Vienna, May 27th, 2003. Dr. Mons Fischer, acquired from the above for EUR €11,132. A copy of the invoice from Galerie Zacke, Vienna, May 27th, 2003, is accompanying this lot. A seasoned private collector of modern and contemporary art, Dr. Mons Fischer has also acquired fine Chinese works of art since the 1980s, eventually building one of the most important collections of its kind in Austria. Condition: Some repair and touchups as generally expected from Tang dynasty excavations. Losses, fissures and encrustations. Three drilled holes from sample-taking. Overall very good condition. Scientific Report: A thermoluminescence analysis report issued by Oxford Authentication on February 11th, 2020, based on sample number C120a59, sets the firing date of three samples taken at 900 – 1500 years ago. A copy of the report, issued by Oxford Authentication, is accompanying this lot. Weight: 4.4 kg Dimensions: Height 55.5 cm This elegant figure, beautifully modeled with carefully incised lines that suggest the folds of the garment, is a particularly large and charming example of the court ladies that became fashionable in the second half of the Tang dynasty. The reign of Emperor Ming Huang seems to have heralded the growth in popularity of a more generous female form and the adoption of less structured, flowing robes. This change in style has traditionally been attributed to the influence of the emperor’s adored concubine Yang Guifei, who was reported to have had a rather voluptuous figure. Yang Guifei was held partly responsible for the circumstances that led to the An Lushan rebellion of AD 756, and she was executed by the accompanying troops as she and the Emperor fled to Sichuan. The Emperor’s grief at her loss was immortalized in one of China’s best- known literary works, The Song of Eternal Regret. However, excavated figures suggest that this fashion was already coming to prominence by the time that Yang Guifei won the emperor’s admiration. In addition to their robes, the hairstyles of these figures also differ from those of their slender predecessors. While the latter tended to have their hair drawn back from the face and then arranged in one or two elaborate knots, the plumper ladies, like the current figure, tend to have softer hair styles. The hair is much fuller, framing the upper part of the face and is tied in a looser arrangement on top. Literature comparison: The figures of this type usually hold their hands in front of them, in order to provide a more graceful arrangement of their sleeves. Some have their hands completely hidden as can be seen in three of the figures from the Schloss Collection. See J. Baker Seeking Immortality - Chinese Tomb Sculpture from the Schloss Collection, Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, Santa Ana, 1996, p. 34, no. 17. Others among these figures hold a pet animal or bird, as in the case of the figure with a small pug dog in the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, illustrated by G. Hasebe and M. Sato, Sekai toji zenshu, 11 Tang, Tokyo, 1976, no. 29, or the figure gently cradling a songbird in her hand, Seeking Immortality, op. cit., p. 34, no. 17, second from the right. A very few of the figures hold a small child, as in the case of a mother and child group excavated from a tomb dated to AD 744 near Xi’an. See E. Schloss, Ancient Chinese Ceramic Sculpture from Han through Tang, vol. 1, Stamford, 1977, p. 42, fig. 7. Auction result comparison: Compare with a closely related pottery figure of a lad