LOT 241 LARGE TANG DYNASTY ZODIAC SET - TL TESTED
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Ca. 618?07 ADAn elaborate set of twelve terracotta zodiac figures modelled with animal heads supported on human bodies wearing court dresses (shenyi) consisting of a long waistcoat in several hues tied at the waist over dresses with long flaring sleeves. The hands are folded in front of the chest. Zodiac figures represent the Chinese repeating twelve-year cycle calendar in which each year is associated with a different animal. The twelve Zodiac animals are the rat, the ox, the tiger, the rabbit, the dragon, the snake, the horse, the goat, the monkey, the rooster, the dog, and the pig. The tradition of sculpting terracotta figurines into zodiac representations might have originated during the Han Dynasty (206 BC朅D 220). The Han dynasty artisans would cast these animal representations in bronze as offerings. Beginning in the Northern Wei dynasty (386?34 AD) the zodiac figures presented with human bodies, such as in the present lot, became funerary sculpture that would be moulded either in standing or kneeling positions. The zodiac figures were often placed in a north-south direction in coffin chambers to represent the progress of time. People hoped that such an arrangement would encourage the god to time to guard the tomb. Compare a similar yet smaller set of twelve painted pottery zodiac figures in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, several of which have been exhibited throughout the years, including the monkey in Monkey Business: Celebrating the Year of the Monkey (2016). Another set from the Shaanxi History Museum, Xi'an, was exhibited in the China, 5000 Years: Innovation and Transformation in the Arts, at the Guggenheim Museum, New York 1998. For a recent smaller set of Tang zodiac figures sold at Christie抯, https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6187266.Size: Set of 12; L: 450mm / W: 145 mm; average weight 3.3kg per piece, total: 40kgProvenance: East Anglian private collection; formerly acquired in the early 1990s in Hong Kong.
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