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Jan Van Beers
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Gilt-Bronze Animal, Western Han Dynasty ,
( China
206 to 8
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Dimensions
17.00cm wide
11.00cm high
(6.69 inches wide 4.33 inches high)
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Literature:
Compare a tiger in a crouching position in : Daisy Lion-Goldsmith and Jean Claude Moreau Gobard, Chinese Art: Bronze, Jade Sculpture, Ceramics. pl.43
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Condition:
excellent
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Description / Expertise
The very rare and important gilt-bronze feline powerfully cast ,prowling forward with raised head, in an aggressive attitude. The eyes inlaid with glass. The back of the neck covered by a wide collar in 7 sections. The gilding is partially covered by malachite, azurite and cuprite encrustations.
Bronze animals of such large size are otherwise rarely represented in this vivid pose but tigers seated in a more formal manner, looking straight ahead , were used, for example, as legs of bronze vessels. Powerful figures of strident felines are also found among the monumental stone sculptures of Han Dynasty spirit roads, three of which are illustrated in Paludan, The Chinese Spirit Road, 1991 pls.36-8, one in the Guanlinmiao Museum, Luoyang, two in the Shaanxi Provincial Museum, Xi'an.
No other bronze animal of comparable style and size appears to be recorded and it is extremely rare to find any bronze or gilt-bronze figure of this period cast in this "naturalistic" manner, conveying the strength as well as the movement of the body.
An Oxford Thermoluminescence test C104d67 (dated 16th March 2004) of a sample of the casting core, taken from inside the hole in the stomach, is consistent with the date attribution.
ref.no.4567
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