An extremely rare blue, straw and amber-glazed buffalo Tang dynasty | 唐 三彩加藍臥牛

The Sze Yuan Tang collection.

Sotheby’s London, 4th November 2020, lot 234.

This figure of a buffalo is impressive for its naturalistic proportions and artistic pose, demonstrating the animal’s innate strength and gentle nature. Its artful modelling and powerful glazing embody the exploratory spirit and prosperous economy of the Tang empire (618-907). During this period, China was highly cosmopolitan, which encouraged the potters to elevate ceramics into an art form.

Strongly associated with agriculture, figures of domestic animals such as buffaloes were commonly crafted standing and harnessed in a position to plough. The reclining pose, however, is uncommon among extant examples. With one leg stretched out and the head turned aside, the present figure captures the buffalo’s bucolic character, evoking the essence of a pastoral life. This figure is also exceptional for its generous application of cobalt oxide, which was extremely hard to achieve because the material was imported from Central Asia and demanded kiln mastery. Very few ceramic figures of animals appear with such extensive coverage of cobalt, and the use in this piece corroborates the prosperity of interregional trade and the wealth of its owner.

Glazed pottery figures were first endowed with funerary importance in the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE). People buried reproductions of valuable animals and daily objects to accompany the deceased in their tombs, entrusting them to serve the deceased in the afterlife. During the Tang, these wares became considerably richer in colouration and ornamentation to signify status and wealth. Commissioned by aristocratic families, figures like the present were paraded through the city centres at funeral processions to manifest the owner’s eminence, both to the spirits and the people participating in the rite.

While most Tang tomb figures show a certain level of standardisation, depictions of reclining buffaloes are scarce, and only two green-glazed buffaloes in closely related posture appear to survive, exhibited by the Min Chiu Society and illustrated in In Pursuit of Antiquities, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1995-6, cat. no. 85. Also, compare a reclining sancai-glazed mythical beast in the collection of the Tenri Sankokan Museum, Nara, illustrated in William Watson, Tang and Liao Ceramics, London, 1984, p. 230.

For examples predominantly glazed in blue, see a standing buffalo with a rider included in the exhibition Tang Sancai Pottery Selected from the Collection of Alan And Simon Hartman, the International Ceramics Fair and Seminar, London, 1989, cat. no. 15; another in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., accession no. F1949.26; and a standing donkey, excavated in 1956 from Xi’an, Shaanxi, now conserved in the National Museum of China.

來源

思源堂收藏

倫敦蘇富比2020年11月4日，編號234

此臥牛造型生動，姿態恬雅，壯實筋骨與溫順脾性皆活靈活現。塑胎獨具匠心，施釉技藝嫻熟，足可反映唐王朝（618-907年）銳意創新、國富民豐之況。此朝，中國海納百川，受時代所驅，陶匠大膽探索，產瓷高度藝術化。

水牛等牲畜與農耕息息相關，故動物俑多站立，或配軛頭作犁田狀，俯臥之姿甚為少見。此件臥牛偏頭側顧，前蹄舒展，頗具田園清致。通身施藍釉亦屬珍罕，因所用鈷料皆從中亞進口，發色又須窰技精純，故尤為稀貴。動物俑極少大面積用鈷藍，此件用料慷慨，既印證跨境通商之繁茂，又映照造臥牛者之顯貴。

彩陶俑於漢代（公元前206年-公元220年）始作墓葬用。時人以陶塑複製禽畜及日常貴重物什隨墓主人入葬，供其死後使用。至唐代，陶俑製作更加富麗，從而彰顯墓主人地位與財富。此臥牛之類當為公侯貴胄造，於葬禮中隨送殯隊伍遊行過市，將墓主人之顯赫昭示鬼神，亦彰示眾人。

唐代陶俑制式分明，罕有作臥牛者，僅見兩件綠釉臥牛，展於敏求精舍三十五週年紀念展，《好古敏求》，香港藝術館，香港，1995-6年，編號85。另比一件三彩臥獸，藏天理參考館，奈良，錄William Watson，《Tang and Liao Ceramics》，倫敦，1984年，頁230。

大面積施藍釉者，可比兩件騎牛俑，其一展於《Tang Sancai Pottery Selected from the Collection of Alan And Simon Hartman》，國際陶器博覽會與研討會，倫敦，1989年，編號15，其二藏佛利爾美術館，華盛頓特區，藏品編號F1949.26。另比一立驢俑，1956年陝西西安出土，現藏中國國家博物館。