Massive green-glazed horse
Description
The wide popularity of horses in Han dynasty art reflects their great impact on China’s history and myths. While the horse was always admired for its strength and nobility, it also came to be associated with layers of symbolic meaning, martial prowess, and supernatural qualities.
Glazed earthenware horses of such impressive size from the Han dynasty are rare, and this may be the largest known. Of impressive proportions, standing foursquare, the upright clipped-maned neck curves up to a well-defined, shortened head with hollow pricked-up ears, bulging eyes, flared nostrils, and an open mouth revealing teeth and tongue. Wearing a bridle set with circular bosses and carrying a raised knotted tail, which may originally have been adorned with hair, this horse is similar in style to Eastern Han examples excavated in Sichuan province; and results of thermoluminescence analyses are consistent with the dating. Carefully restored, the head is essentially intact, except for reattached ears and the front tip of the mane. When the front legs were repaired and reattached, they splay outward creating an awkward stance. Most Han examples have a more vertical stance or lean forward as if ready to stride forth. Wood armatures inside the legs lend support to this marvel of early ceramic technology.
Large-scale horses in the Sichuan region are often found in tomb chambers without any military association. They were commonly accompanied by a host of other burial figures, including entertainers, dancers, musicians, servants, architectural models, mostly produced in a smaller size and scale. Clearly, horses of this prominent size probably reflected prestige, conferred status, or perhaps were meant to provide mounts for the afterlife journey.
Published References & Reproductions
Christie's New York, The Jingguantang Collection Part II, Mar. 20, 1997 auction, lot 51.
Exhibited
PUAM Asian galleries, 2/6/02–
_Recarving China's Past: Art, Archaeology, and Architecture of the "Wu Family Shrines"
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PUAM, 3/5–6/26/05
