Page 37 - Studio International - October1973
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western Persia as a result of Chang Ch'ien's
diplomatic mission. Previously the low steppe
horse was the only mount and draught animal
the Chinese possessed, and it is hardly
surprising that its squat proportions did not
much inspire the sculptor.
The adoption of the western horse coincided
with the rise to prominence of a Confucian
official class whose members were landowners
but not hereditary aristocrats. The horse, and
then the carriage to which it was harnessed by a
new efficient method, became class symbols
of the new governors and bureaucrats. Models
of horses were buried with their owners, and a
mural painting or relief of the official's cortege
with riders and carriages was de rigeur in the
tombs of the new great. The most splendid
equine assemblage ever discovered is that
excavated in 1969 at Wu-wei in Kansu, from
the tomb of Governor Chang Yeh-ch'ang. In
portraying the much-fabled Sogdian horses —
`celestial' and 'blood-sweating' — the artist had
established a convention which minor
craftsmen could all copy.
What had previously been made in jade and
(Top) Parcel-gilt bronze figures of leopards, inlaid (Above) Bronze model of horse and carriage, driver, pottery here appears cast in bronze. Distortion
with silver and garnets, found in the tomb of Princess attendant. Found at Wu-wei in Kansu in 1969. Dated
Tou Wan, at Man-ch'eng in Hopei Province in 1968. 2nd century AD. Height of horse 4o cm of the musculature, particularly in the head,
Date from late 2nd century BC. Height 3.5 cm with dilated nostril and wild eye, conveys the
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