Tuesday 20 March 2012

A Chinese Ceramic Figure of a Sogdian Wine-Merchant


Cosmopolitisme in the Tang Dynasty: A Chinese Ceramic Figure of a Sogdian Wine- Merchant
by Suzanne G. Valenstein 


This monograph investigates a Tang-dynasty (618–907) fifteen-inch-high, white porcelaneous figure of a Sogdian wine-merchant that is one of the most remarkable examples of Chinese mortuary sculpture to come to light in recent years. Only six Tang porcelaneous figures have been located during this investigation, and no documented analogous tomb figures appear to have been published to date. However, this figure—which is in the collection of Alexandra Munroe and Robert Rosenkranz—clearly belongs to a small, cohesive group of Chinese ceramic figures depicting foreign wine-merchants that can be attributed to the early Tang period.
The study shows that the figure’s relationship to a very small group of analogous tomb figures substantiates the attribution of “early Tang dynasty, ca. 625–75” assigned to this piece. It also considers hu ren, a term that by the Tang dynasty had come to refer specifically to those non-Chinese people with origins in the “Western Regions,” especially the Sogdians. These hu ren, or non-Han Westerners, are portrayed in the art of the Tang dynasty as having curly hair, heavy beards, a prominent nose, and deep-set eyes. Recent archaeological findings have verified the identification of the Rosenkranz, Croës, and Cernuschi ceramic figures, as well as the Duan Boyang head, as ethnic Sogdians, an Eastern Iranian people whose home, Sogdiana, lay in a region that encompasses today’s Uzbekistan and part of Tajikistan.
The book also delves into the construction of the figures and the head, taking into consideration the fact that the nature of China’s clays dictated the development of both its high-fired porcelaneous wares and low-fired earthenwares. The history of both ceramic types is helpfully summarized.
The history of Chinese mortuary furnishings, known as mingqi, is also discussed; these were manufactured for the afterlife. This study traces the evolution from the human sacrificial victims that were placed in Chinese tombs to meet the needs of the dead during the Shang dynasty (ca. 1600–ca. 1046 BC) to surrogate Tang-dynasty mingqi porcelaneous figures of Western wine-merchants.
The study then examines the various decorative motifs on the Rosenkranz figure and its analogous examples—tasseled streamers issuing from an ornamental disk, the makara, pearled roundel, monster-mask, five-petaled palmette, and the dragon set in a pearled roundel. These are traced both chronologically and geographically to their origins. Most of these ornamental motifs can be found in the West. They were passed along a large and complex system of cultural interaction and exchange that can be traced from ancient Egypt and Greece until they eventually reached China. At the same time, most of these ornamental elements can be directly or indirectly associated with the Buddhist religion, which originated in India and came to northern China from India by way of Central Asia.
The most remarkable feature of this Rosenkranz figure is its porcelaneous body. As opposed to the literally thousands of known Tang-dynasty earthenware tomb sculptures, only six Tang porcelaneous figures have come to light during this study. This paucity of porcelaneous tomb figures is not surprising, which makes this study all the more unqiue.
Cosmopolitanism in the Tang Dynasty will be valuable to art historians, particularly specialists in the history of Chinese ceramics; to scholars investigating Chinese mortuary practices; to medieval historians; as well as to others whose interests lie in China and the West, and in the Silk-Road trade that connected these two different worlds.
For more information, click HERE

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please consider adding a search function to your site. I have been seeking (without success) comments you made on two pictures some time ago. One, I think, may be our only representation of a Nestorian custom mentioned by Clavijo. I should have liked to re-read your comments in that post. Alas!

Hans van Roon said...

Thanks for your comment. I'm not happy with the present searchabilty of this site and will have a look at it this weekend.

Anonymous said...

Hello, i am a student in history of art and i am actually working on a similar piece in the Cernuschi museum.

I followed the link for more informations but it goes nowhere and i c'ant find this publication.

Could you help me and give me more informations about it ?
(where can i buy it or read it)

Thanks a lot.

N.

Hans van Roon said...

Cambria Press is up to now the only source. You can find this book on the UK website in the Cambria Press Winter Catalogue on page 8.
The price is still to be announced (TBA) so maybe the book isn't yet officially out.
The ISBN code is 9781604978032 so you can check regularly or contact Cambria Press
Best regards, Hans

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much, for the tips and for your contribution !

Bye.

N.