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Pottery figure of a Court lady China, Tang dynasty, 618 – 906 AD Height: 18 1/2 inches, 47 cm
This amply proportioned lady probably represents a person of exalted rank at the Court, which is indicated both by her full-bodied figure, considered fashionable at the time, and the elaborate arrangement of her hair, which was also very much a feature of high-ranking ladies. It is rare to find a pottery figure from this period with most of the original colour- and decorative scheme intact, allowing one to precisely visualise what a fashionable woman would have worn in the Tang dynasty. The type of floral pattern seen on her dress can be found on Tang dynasty fabric fragments decorated in the wax-resist method, one of which is preserved in the Shoso-in, Nara, Japan[1]. A painted terracotta figure of a court lady, her dress decorated in a similar fashion with a pattern of small flowers, is in the collection of T.T. Tsui[2]. It is interesting to compare the present figure to a similarly dressed lady, also sporting an extravagantly sweeping hairstyle, depicted riding a horse in the painting Emperor’s Favourite on Spring Excursion[3]. In 5000 Years of Chinese Costumes the authors explain that “The jacket and skirt was the main dress style for Tang women” and that the ‘cape’ or scarf was generally made of light, thin gauze with printed patterns. “When the wearer was walking, the back-and-forth movements of the arms made the cape flow in a becoming manner.”[4]. The style of footwear can also be compared to a pair of Tang period shoes, excavated in Asitana, Turfun, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region[5]. The dating of this piece is consistent with the findings of Oxford thermoluminescence analysis report no. C100m68. 1 See: Chinese Ceramics, Selected Articles from Orientations 1982-1998, fig. 5, p.214 |
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