A PAINTED POTTERY STANDING FIGURE OF A FAT LADY


Tang dynastyPosed in a relaxed stance with her tiny right hand raised and her left hand holding the collar of the loose robes enveloping her full figure, her elaborate coiffure terminating in a chignon that droops forward above her chubby face with delicate features and pink-painted cheeks. 18 1/4in (46.5cm) high
|Provenance Christie's, New York, 21 March 2002, Lot 108This figure with her tiny hands, plump face and up-swept coiffure terminating in a 'fallen horse chignon' represent a Tang ideal of feminine beauty documented in numerous tomb finds and major collections: see, for example, Jan Fontein and Tung Wu, Unearthing China's Past (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,1973), pp. 174-175, no. 89 (46cm high) and fig. 90. Although plump figures of this type have been associated with the notorious imperial concubine Yang Guifei (719-756), the authors note that full-figured beauties are documented in tombs prior to her being named as imperial consort in 745 by the emperor Xuanzong (reigned 713-756): see two sancai glazed pottery figures from the tomb of General Xianyu Tinghui, dated to 723, included in James C.Y. Watt and Prudence Oliver Harper (ed.), China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750 AD (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004), pp. 310-11, nos. 202 A and B.