J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York
MenuPast Exhibition
Chinese Art: The Szekeres Collection
March 13-29, 2019
21.
A WHITE MARBLE FIGURE OF A COURTESAN
Tang Dynasty (618 – 907)
shown seated on a stool of hourglass shape with her hands folded within the wide sleeves of her long robes draped from one shoulder and hanging down to the tops of her shoes with upturned toes emerging at the hem, her hair plaited into two small buns, her round face well carved with youthful features in a contented expression, fully finished in the round, showing the robes loosely draped over her back, the crystalline white marble lightly encrusted with tan brown earth from burial.
Height 9 1⁄2 inches (24.2 cm)
Exhibited / Published
J. J. Lally & Co., Chinese Works of Art, New York, 1988, no. 44
Marble sculpture of a secular subject dating from the Tang dynasty is extremely rare.
Compare the white marble seated figure of a female musician playing a Chinese lute in the collection of the Fine Arts University, Tokyo, which has been widely published, first appearing at the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Burlington House, London, 1935-1936, illustrated in the catalogue, pl. 630; also illustrated in Masterpieces from the Collection of Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku, Art Museum of Tokyo Art University, Tokyo, 1977, pl. 74; and by Mizuno, Chinese Stone Sculpture, Tokyo, 1950, pl. XIV, no. 30.
Compare also the Tang glazed pottery seated figure of a young female musician holding cymbals, with hair similarly plaited in two buns, now in the collection of the Asia Society, published by Leidy, Treasures of Asian Art: The Asia Society’s Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, 3rd Collection, New York, 1994, p. 144, pl. 135.
唐 白大理石仕女 高 24.2 厘米
Additional Images (Touch to enlarge)
21.
A WHITE MARBLE FIGURE OF A COURTESAN
Tang Dynasty (618 – 907)
Height 9 1⁄2 inches (24.2 cm)