A large sancai pottery figure of a leonine earth spirit, Tang dynasty | 唐 三彩鎮墓獸

The Tang dynasty represents one of the most glorious chapters of China’s history when the country was open to and fascinated by influences beyond its boundaries. New impulses and visual stimuli were imported via the Silk Route. The cosmopolitan nature of the culture is evident in the extravagant pottery figures commissioned for royal and aristocratic tombs. Production and ownership of these rarified glazed figures were restricted to north China, largely in the areas around the capital cities of Luoyang and Chang’an. This flamboyant interpretation of these guardian figures, as portrayed in lot 3002 and lot 3007, derives from Buddhist art in India. It epitomizes the Tang elite’s admiration of exoticism during the height of its power over Silk Road trade routes. The magnificent figures of earth spirits represent both technically and aesthetically the peak of Chinese tomb figures produced during the Tang dynasty.