Period:Tang dynasty Production date:7thC-10thC
Materials:jade
Technique:incised
Subjects:musician
Dimensions:Height: 3.80 centimetres Width: 4.10 centimetres
Description:
Semi-translucent greyish white jade belt plaque with black inclusions.
IMG
![图片[1]-belt-fitting BM-2022-3034.198-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Tang dynasty/Jades/691_.jpg)
Comments:The square plaque decorated with a kneeling musician dressed in a waisted garment and boots, with hair tied into a chignon and a beard, playing a wind instrument. Encircling his shoulders and on the unevenly polished background is a swirling ribbon. See Rawson 1995, p.329, cat.no.25:2. This plaque is almost completely square. At the centre is a relief carving of a kneeling bearded musicians playing a pipe. The compact figure has a slightly rounded belly and he is clothed in some heavy textile, whose folds are shown with incised lines. The face, clothed body, legs and arms are all clearly defined in relief. On the other hand, scarves surrounding the figure on the background and the mat on which the figure kneels are shown only in incised lines. The front of the plaque is well polished, while the back is more matt and has four pairs of holes for attachment. In place of the plaques with undecorated surfaces and slits for straps, as 567 [2014,AsiaLoan,1.169), plaques decorated with kneeling figures became popular during early Tang times. Such plaques would have belonged to a set, with a different musician on each plaque. These seated musicians, such as this one with hair curled at back and a beard, are in Central Asian style. Other, related subjects show servants offering utensils. Similar figures occur in low relief stone sculptures of the sixth to eighth century, a notable example being a sequence of musicians within roundels on a stone couch of the sixth century in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC. It is possible that as both the servant figures and the musicians were recognised as Western and were intended to depict figures at the court of the Queen Mother of the West, Xi Wang Mu, in her western paradise in the Kunlun mountains. This paradise was particularly renowned for its music and the allusion of the musicians would probably have been readily recognisable. As jade was intimately connected with cults of immortality, it is unlikely that the designs on jade belt plaques were casual ornaments. They were probably linked to either the status or the aspirations of their owners. It therefore seems reasonable to suggest that the figures on many jade belt plaques of the Tang dynasty should be seen in an auspicious content.
Materials:jade
Technique:incised
Subjects:musician
Dimensions:Height: 3.80 centimetres Width: 4.10 centimetres
Description:
Semi-translucent greyish white jade belt plaque with black inclusions.
IMG
Comments:The square plaque decorated with a kneeling musician dressed in a waisted garment and boots, with hair tied into a chignon and a beard, playing a wind instrument. Encircling his shoulders and on the unevenly polished background is a swirling ribbon. See Rawson 1995, p.329, cat.no.25:2. This plaque is almost completely square. At the centre is a relief carving of a kneeling bearded musicians playing a pipe. The compact figure has a slightly rounded belly and he is clothed in some heavy textile, whose folds are shown with incised lines. The face, clothed body, legs and arms are all clearly defined in relief. On the other hand, scarves surrounding the figure on the background and the mat on which the figure kneels are shown only in incised lines. The front of the plaque is well polished, while the back is more matt and has four pairs of holes for attachment. In place of the plaques with undecorated surfaces and slits for straps, as 567 [2014,AsiaLoan,1.169), plaques decorated with kneeling figures became popular during early Tang times. Such plaques would have belonged to a set, with a different musician on each plaque. These seated musicians, such as this one with hair curled at back and a beard, are in Central Asian style. Other, related subjects show servants offering utensils. Similar figures occur in low relief stone sculptures of the sixth to eighth century, a notable example being a sequence of musicians within roundels on a stone couch of the sixth century in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC. It is possible that as both the servant figures and the musicians were recognised as Western and were intended to depict figures at the court of the Queen Mother of the West, Xi Wang Mu, in her western paradise in the Kunlun mountains. This paradise was particularly renowned for its music and the allusion of the musicians would probably have been readily recognisable. As jade was intimately connected with cults of immortality, it is unlikely that the designs on jade belt plaques were casual ornaments. They were probably linked to either the status or the aspirations of their owners. It therefore seems reasonable to suggest that the figures on many jade belt plaques of the Tang dynasty should be seen in an auspicious content.
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