A PAINTED GREY FIGURE OF A MYTHICAL BEAST

HAN/JIN DYNASTY, 3RD CENTURY

Details

A PAINTED GREY FIGURE OF A MYTHICAL BEAST
Han/Jin dynasty, 3rd century
The stocky beast shown in mid-stride, its bovine head lowered, modeled with three flame-like spikes issuing from the neck and flattened bosses along the spine, with muscular haunches supported on knife-cut legs, its long, tapered tail curved upward, extensive traces of white slip and red pigment, earth encrustation
10½in. (26.7cm.) long

Provenance

The Hardy Collection of Early Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art from the Sze Yuan Tang, Christie's, New York, 21 September 1995, lot 24.

Lot Essay

Similar examples are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, illustrated by Suzanne Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, rev. ed. p. 57, no. 50; in Sekai toji zenshu, vol. 13, Tokyo, 1962, no. 123; and in Kandai no bijutsu, 'The Art of the Han', Osaka Municipal Museum of Fine Art, 1976, no. 1-118.

Comparable figures have been sold in these rooms, June 3, 1988, lot 127; and another from the Scheinman Collection, March 23, 1995, lot 23.

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