A painted grey pottery figure of a caparisoned horse
彩繪裝飾灰陶馬

Northern Wei dynasty, 386-535 AD, China
北魏, 中國

Height: 29 cm, 11½ inches; Length: 32.5 cm, 12 3/4 inches
高: 29釐米, 長: 32.5 釐米

Standing foursquare on a rectangular base, the head is well modelled with flaring nostrils, bushy arched brows and pricked ears between which is an elaborate vertically pleated forelock. A tasselled and decorated scarf is looped over the top of the neck, the mane covered with a scallop edged cloth decorated with punched circles, repeated on the low slung flaring mud guards, beneath the twisted ends of the long saddle cloth. Low around the neck is a tasselled chest strap, with a ring punched crupper on the rump.

The grey terracotta is covered with a white slip, and then further decorated with cold pigments, red being the colour most prevalent.

Authentication

Oxford TL test C114j87.

Similar Examples

”The arts of China by M Sullivan”, London 1973, page 119, plate 93, from the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum Canada. This horse comes from the excavated tomb of Prince Chenxing, buried in Luoyang Henan Province and dated to 525 AD.