figurine; 小雕像(Chinese) BM-1928-1022.102

Period:Unknown Production date:499-640
Materials:wood, 木 (Chinese),
Technique:painted, carved, 雕刻 (Chinese),

Dimensions:Height: 22.50 centimetres Width: 6.10 centimetres

Description:
Figurine of a man, wearing a long robe with an undergarment in white and red and a dark-blue jacket with red seams. The undergarment is decorated with small white suns, the jacket with lozenge-shapes. The hands are held in the sleeves and in front of the chest, the black hair ist fastened in a topknot. Made of carved and painted wood.
IMG


Comments:EnglishFrom Whitfield 1985:The wooden and clay figurines from Gaochang are important as representatives of the precursors of Tang glazed figurines of the seventh and eighth centuries. In this example the form is carved with a minimum of detail, the lower part being simply a tapering rectangular oblong with the edges chamfered. The painting is the same front and back, a black jacket over a green skirt, both bearing florets in white. At the neck the undershirt of striped red and green is just visible. Later, in the Tang dynasty, more sophisticated figurines from Astana were made with a painted clay head on a wooden body, or were elaborately dressed in actual silks (cf. Xinjiang chutu wenwu, Pls. 121, 129).Along with a number of other wooden figurines and two wooden caskets, one of which is shown in Pl. 93, this figure was found in an isolated tomb in the northern part of the Astana cemetery. According to Stein, the conical roof of the chamber was cut in the form of two superimposed squares, and the smooth walls were whitewashed and painted to a height of about a metre in a succession of panels around three sides of the chamber. No photographs were taken, but the scene on the main wall, facing the entrance, featured “a man seated on a carpet, his wife and her three attendants facing him, and three servants approaching from behind with offerings” (Innermost Asia, Vol. Ⅱ, p. 661). Other subjects included guardian monsters, domestic animals, a woman preparing food, and so on, recalling the favourite themes for tomb decoration from the Eastern Han dynasty onwards. The bomb was not dated, but Ast. vi. 1 nearby, with a similar chamber roof, contained a wooden tablet with a date corresponding to A.D. 365, so the tomb may date from the Gaochang period (A.D. 499-640) or even earlier. ChineseFrom Whitfield 1985:高昌國時期的木俑或泥俑是7～8世紀的唐三彩的先驅，具有重要的意義。看本圖的木俑，細部雕刻簡單到最小极限，到了下半身，略寬的裙裾只不過是用立體六角方形來表現。背面也有色彩，綠、赤色的裙和黑上衣的兩面均散著白色小花。領子處露出內衣的紅、綠色的縞。以後，到了唐代，阿斯塔那的木俑卻失去了這種簡單素樸的風格，製作的是木身上安裝彩塑的頭部，身纏真絹做的華麗衣裳等作品（參照《新疆出土文物》圖版121、129）。此木俑發現于阿斯塔那墓地北邊孤立的古墓中，從那裏出土的多是木俑及兩個木製的舍利容器，其中一個展示在圖93中。據斯坦因講，該古墓的天井是錐體形狀，墓室的三面牆壁上塗著白色壁土，約1米的高度上繪著像牆裙一樣排列的壁畫。沒有拍攝照片，其裏側牆壁的繪畫“是一個男性坐在地毯上，其妻子和三位侍女與他相對，還有三個侍者端著貢物從背後走近”（《亞洲腹地》，卷2，661頁）。其它壁面，題材包括有守護神、家畜、準備食物的婦女等，使人想到漢代以後盛行的墓葬裝飾內容。此墓沒有紀年，但從天井形式相同，出土了升平八年（365年）木簡的阿斯塔那第vi區1號墓看，大概是高昌國時期（499～640年），或更早一些。