| OBJECT UNDER SPOTLIGHT | |
| February, 2001. | |
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Featured in our exhibition, Archetypes and Archaism. March 20-29. Objects available for viewing March 5. Hard-cover catalogue available US$80, includes an essay from Professor Robert J. Poor, University of Minnesota, entitled "The Spirit of Wu". PAIR OF PAINTED POTTERY ENTERTAINERS Han Dynasty (220 BCE - 206 CE) Height: 7 1/2 inches |
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The bare-chested figures are dressed in flaring black trousers with red belt and red trimming. They are posed in active stance as if in the middle of a performance. One figure waves his right arm up and the left down swinging his leg behind his back. The other figure, in a side-step position, crouches with hunched shoulders, his arms folded close to his sides. Their hair is tied in a topknot and falls over one shoulder in a long braid. Their faces are painted with lively expressions with wide-open eyes, mustaches, and smiling mouths, one figure with his tongue outstretched. Both figures have protuberant bellies, large heads, wide legs and exaggerated buttocks.
The poses of the figures are as humorous as their expressions and one feels that these characters are truly alive and dancing or performing contortionist acrobatics. We can almost imagine the boisterous atmosphere of the folk theaters popular at the time. Dancers, acrobats, and musicians were popular forms of entertainment at funerary feasts. These figures served as pottery replicas, or mingqi, real entertainers that were to accompany the deceased in the afterworld. For comparison, see a group of musicians and acrobats unearthed in 1969 from Shandong, illustrated in Treasures -- 300 Best Excavated Antiques from China, plate 72. For a similar pose and protuberant belly of an entertainer from the Eastern Han dynasty, see A Survey of Chinese Ceramics, Early Wares, page 119. Compare the uplifted arms and flaring pants of the dancer, part of a set of four musicians and two grotesque dancers from the Eastern Han dynasty, illustrated in Pre-Tang Ceramics of China, plate 147. The results of thermoluminescence analysis report C100y52 confirms the dating of these figures. If you would like more information on PAIR OF PAINTED POTTERY ENTERTAINERS, please click here. |
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