Cloissone Galloping Kansu Horse
Item Details
A cloissone galloping horse of Kansu. The card description reads: ‘To the Chinese, the horse symbolizes heaven, power, and untiring strength. This Chinese zodiac animal is associated with the position of south on the compass, and the dark Yin half of the dual principle of Yin and Yang, the interaction of opposites in nature. One of the 6 animals originally domesticated by the Chinese, the horses tended to be slow, sturdy, short-legged animals used for northwestern borders, they surprised the Chinese with their riding prowess and extremely swift horses. Because this unfamiliar breed of horses was long-legged and fleet of foot, the Chinese called them ’heavenly horses’, as if they were airborne. Consequently, they are often shown with their weight-bearing foot resting on the back of a swallow in flight. These swift horses were soon acquired by the Chinese military and used in warfare to drive out the invading western nomads. These dynamic creatures also inspired many artistic renderings of their finely chiseled features and graceful bodies. Frequently cast in bronze and poised as if flying, these sculptures suggest, in a beautiful and imaginative way, the almost divine power which the ancient Chinese believed the horse to possess. Figures of men, horses, and chariots made of either clay or bronze have been found in several Han Dynasty tombs. One pit discovered in 1975 near the tomb of Chi’in Shih-huang-ti contained over 6000 life-size men and horses. This particular reproduction is based on a bronze horse unearthed in 1969 from a tomb in northwestern Kansu Province dating from the Eastern Han Dynasty (1st-2nd century A.D.). Scholars believe it belonged to a man of high military rank such as a cavalry commander. The original bronze, measuring about 15.5’ long and 13.5’high, is owned by the Palace Museum in Peking and traveled with the Chinese archaeological exhibition that toured this country in 1974-75. The Smithsonian’s ethnological collections in our National Museum of Natural History includes Chinese bronze sculptures and decorative arts.’ It has colors of purple, blue, yellow, green and gold on white. It has a wood stand. It has a case with green and black paper.
Condition
- signs of wear.
Dimensions
- for box.
- Horse on stand measures 6.0"w x 6.0"h x 4.0"d.
Item #
17CIN168-256
