A well-modelled unglazed pottery figure of a prancing horse Tang Dynasty, 7th / 8th century

the elegant horse finely modelled striding forward with head held high and right foreleg raised up in animated gesture, the head fitted with a bridle hung with leaf-shaped tassels, vividly sculpted with flared nostrils and mouth agape below bulging eyes and heavy brows, the forelock parted in the center before the full finely combed mane sweeping down one side of the neck to the leather saddle with stirrups, set atop a large padded blanket secured by a crupper strap suspending bulbous ornaments, above the docked tail tied back from the well defined, muscular legs, with extremely finely painted details to the lower eyelids and overall traces of polychrome over white slip

Collection of Arthur B. Michael, Newton Center, MA (bequest of 1942).
Collection of Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, no. 1942:16.19.

Andrew C. Ritchie, Catalogue of the Paintings and Sculpture in the Permanent Collection, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, 1949, p. 212, no. 213.
Steven A. Nash, with Katy Kline, Charlotta Kotik and Emese Wood, Albright-Knox Art Gallery: Painting and Sculpture from Antiquity to 1942, New York, 1979, p. 106.

Painted pottery horses sculpted in this lively and naturalistic fashion are extremely rare, and the present figure is especially remarkable for the details of its features especially the unusual mane that gracefully falls in voluminous parted locks down the animal’s neck.  The head is skillfully carved and the rest of the body rendered with care in order to achieve the very complex position, whereby the horse is supported on three legs with a foreleg held up high and the hind legs far apart.  Evidenced by the details of the drapery and trappings that are also carefully rendered, the masterly sculpting of this horse sincerely expresses the importance of horses in Tang society.

Horses during the Tang dynasty were symbols of wealth and power and horse breeding reached its apex during this period when most of the prestigious breeds from Central Asian countries such as Samarkand, Khotan and Gandhara were introduced to China.  The Tang aristocracy’s love for horses is much exemplified by the present horse, where complex modelling and strong linear contours harmonize perfectly to form an elegant beast that is as much animated as it is poised.

For a closely related but smaller example, see a horse from the collection of Barlow Walker sold in these rooms, 26th September 1972, lot 674; and another formerly in the collection of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum also sold in these rooms, 6th November 1981, lot 98.  Another similar unglazed pottery prancing horse, also with its head held high and a long wavy mane, was sold as one of a pair in these rooms, 23rd March 2004, lot 595.

A related prancing horse with blanketed saddle from the collection of Anthony M. Solomon, was included in the exhibition From Court to Caravan, Harvard University Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass., 2002, cat.no. 45.  Compare also the prancing horse excavated from the tomb of Princess Yongtai in Xi’an, dated 705 AD, illustrated in Archaeological Finds of the People’s Republic of China 1974-75, Beijing, 1975, pl. 301; and another with a long wavy mane but lacking a saddle or harness, excavated in 1972 from the early Tang tomb belonging to General Zhang Shigui at Liquan county, Shaanxi province, and now in the Shaanxi Zhaoling Museum, included in the exhibition Imperial China. The Art of the Horse in Chinese History, Kentucky Horse Park, Kentucky, 2000, pl. 144.