Pair of important mingqi, a couple of a lady and... Lot 17
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Pair of important mingqi, a couple of a lady and a court man represented standing on a small terrace.
Mingqi, funeral offerings, appeared at the beginning of the Warring States period (475-221), first in wood, then in ceramic, the oldest known dates from the beginning of the 5th century. They surround the deceased in his last resting place.
This funerary furniture is deposited in number, it reflects the life, the career of their owner. One could find up to ninety in a tomb, the Xuanzong emperor reduced the maximum number to seventy.
During the Tang Dynasty, the models evolved from a two-dimensional plastic to a three-dimensional style showing details of hairstyles, jewelry and clothing. This represents a very interesting documentation of the China of this period.
The mingqi are made in a bivalve mold, covered with a white slip that serves as a background for a polychrome decoration painted with cold pigments.
The court lady wears a voluminous head of hair, surmounted at the top of the skull by a half-curved bun, this helmet-like hairstyle is called "paojiaji" (bun absent from home). In ancient times, it is said that young women, forcibly taken from their families by the palace commissioners to become part of the imperial harem, wore their hair in this way as a sign of nostalgia, and this name has remained, losing its original meaning.
It frames a lunar face with very wide-set eyes animated by a deep black prunella. The small nose has a fine bridge and the mouth is round and ruddy. The cheeks are well blush, with the help of a red blush, yanzhi, named after the mountains of the west where iris used to grow. The neck is marked with the 3 folds of "beauty".
The canon of this corpulent aesthetic remains the prerogative of the second half of the reign of Xuanzong (712-756) according to the blossoming forms of Yang Guifei, the beloved concubine of this emperor. This type dominates at the end of the KJaiyuan and Tianbao eras (713-755)
She is dressed in a long, full skirt, tied above the chest, matched with a vest, with a V-neck and wide floating sleeves that cover the hands, it was put on under the skirt. This outfit shows shoes with turned up toes. A long scarf placed on the shoulders falls in front of her by covering her hands.
Court men are quite rare, this one has the same type of full face, he is wearing a guan hat held by a barrette which shows strands of hair sticking out and dressed in a wide dress belted on the hips, with a rounded collar and large deeply incised folds.
Dating from the Tang Dynasty: 618 to 907. Golden age of Chinese coroplasty
They measure respectively in height 79 and 81cm
A thermoluminescence test from the QED laboratory confirming the dating will be given to the buyer.
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