Funerary Sculpture of a Bactrian Camel
The lively appearance of the camel conjures the vibrancy of commercial and cultural exchanges along the ancient Silk Road, which once connected the Tang capital of Chang’an (today’s Xi’an) with other cities in Central Asia and beyond. The two-humped camel is depicted making bold strides forward, with its head pointing skyward while making a loud cry. It carries on its back bolts of textiles, a water flask, a bowl, and a large sack topped by a grotesque animal mask. Many of these objects are believed to have been made by communities along the Silk Road and traded by Sogdian merchants. Depicting the camel in motion with its back fully loaded underscores the original purpose of the sculpture, namely, to show the camel’s close association with long-distance travels under harsh, uncertain conditions.
The main body of the LACMA camel sculpture is painted in three colors: yellow, green and white. The use of different colors adds vitality to the work, enhancing the realism of the animal. The white manes on its neck, chin, and head contrast sharply with its muscular body that is painted in stripes of brown, green, and yellow. Black vertical stripes are added onto the camel’s torso to create depth in its musculature, thus adding texture to the surfaces of the animal. The cargoes on the back of the camel are mainly in yellow and green. The saddle pad is painted in green, which contrasts with the brown of the camel’s body. On the whole, the glaze is applied across much of the camel body, although parts of the camel such as its head and inner thighs remain unglazed. The purposeful use of colors creates a unique tonal style that is characteristic of the Tang sancai.
The LACMA camel and the long-distance travel that it represents carries historical significance in two ways: first, as a record of the exploration of the Silk Road during the Tang Dynasty; second, as part of the contemporary tomb culture.
In the heydays of the Tang Dynasty, China was the destination for many foreign merchants active along the Silk Road. Not only did they bring luxury goods of all sorts from afar to China, they also supplied Chinese silk textiles to Central Asia and even Europe. The camel was an indispensable means of transportation along the Silk Road. It also became an important theme in the Three Colors of the Tang tradition. The inclusion of three-colored camel sculptures in tombs of the elite in Chinese capitals underscore the widespread awareness of the commercial and cultural exchanges along the Silk Road.
The practice of depositing ceramic sculptures as tomb furnishing had a long history in China. Although little is known about the provenance of the LACMA camel sculpture, a comparison with other similar examples from excavated tombs in Xi’an and Luoyang indicate that it likely came from a lavish burial for a member of the elite class in a capital city during the Tang dynasty. Low-fired ceramic sculptures of various shapes and themes were buried alongside the deceased in decorated subterranean structures made of bricks and stones. By making clay models based on objects from everyone life and placing them inside tombs, the deceased and their living descendent apparently believed that life would somehow continue in the afterlife, so that the comfort and luxury represented in the tomb furnishings could still be enjoyed by the deceased in the world beyond. Bringing the traveling camel into the tomb space is interesting, because its presence suggests a desire by the tomb occupant to explore the Silk Road in the afterlife and perhaps a fantasy about the foreign cultures along the way.
There are other funerary ceramic sculptures in this exhibition that help put the LACMA camel sculpture in context. The Horse and Groom (Entry No. 2) from the USC Pacific Asia Museum, in particular, forms a meaningful comparison. The set of ceramic sculptures was made with the same Tang sancai technique. Like the camel, both figures are closely associated with the cultures along the Silk Road. Standing with both hands raised as if holding onto the reins, the groom has deep-set eyes and a large nose. His outfit was typical of the Sogdians: the cone-shaped hat, an overcoat with lapels, and a large ribbon that wraps around his waist. Similarly, the horse likely came from the Sogdian homeland around the Ferghana Valley, where some of the best horses in the world have been bred. Like the camel, the horse and groom represent long-distance travel that once connected China and the outside world through active commercial and cultural exchanges.
-Shiyun Tang
Further Reading:
Qiqi Jiang, “Tang Sancai” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oxford, 2009).
George Kuwayama, Funerary Art of China: Han through T’ang Dynasties (Los Angeles: Los Angeles Museum of Art, 1973).
The Sogdians: Influencers on the Silk Roads. Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institutions, Washington D.C. https://sogdians.si.edu/
Daniel C. Waugh, “Horses and Camels,” depts.washington.edu/silkroad/exhibit/trade/horcamae.html