Horse and Groom
As indicated by his pointed hat, pronounced facial features, and an overcoat with lapels, the groom figure is likely a Sogdian man. He might have come from Sogdiana in what is today Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. Many of his compatriots were active in trading and traveling along the Silk Road. In fact, the trade in horses was the major commerce of the region in the eighth century, which might explain the pairing of the groom with a horse that he might have been tasked to bring to China from the Ferghana Valley [1]. Interestingly, the absence of any rider in the set allows the viewers to imagine themselves as the owner of this magnificent steed.
Besides working as traders and transporters, the Sogdians acted as successful middlemen between the Chinese and the nomadic powers to the north. They practiced a wide variety of religions, ranging from Buddhism to Zoroastrianism to Islam. They also spoke a number of different languages. Manuscripts written in languages such as Sogdian, Sanskrit, and Khotanese were found in the famous Library Cave at the Mogao Grottoes of Dunhuang upon its rediscovery at the beginning of the twentieth century. These documents have given archaeologists and historians a great deal of insights into the lives and cultures of the Sogdian people, especially as they lived in Imperial China. During the Tang Dynasty, many Sogdians assumed powerful roles in the military and government. The tenth century also marks a time when a large number of Sogdians converting to Islam. For this reason, the Sogdian and Chinese cultural exchange during the Tang represents a unique moment in history, of which the horse and groom statues are meaningful material manifestation.
The materials used to make the figures are low-fired clay and glaze [2]. During the Tang Dynasty, sancai or the Three Colors emerged as a significant form of ceramics. The process involves using a three-colored glaze on modeled clay fired at a low temperature [3]. Although the glaze technically contains many colors, the most prominent are brown, green, and off-white. Those hues lend the technique its name as well as its distinctive appearance, a hallmark of the visual arts under the Tang. Many sancai figures are people and animals, and the natural earth tones of the glaze lend them a degree of striking realism. In the Horse and Groom , the horse is an almost amber shade of brown, as is the man’s robe. The saddle and the upper part of the groom’s robe are deep green, and the horse’s head and mane are creamy off-white. It is also important to note that the glaze is not applied perfectly or evenly. Certain parts of the figures are darker than others, and there is evidence that some of it has dripped down onto the man’s legs. Some of the colors look streaked or runny. For the most part, these inconsistencies do not take away from the superb modeling of the sculptures. On the contrary, the colors enhance the figures’ realism, as evidence in the horse’s muscular shape. Clearly, the maker was familiar with the anatomy and proportions of horses.
A comparison with another set of funerary sculptures in the exhibition, Woman and Man Riding Horses from the USC Pacific Asia Museum (figure 2.1), underscores a notable difference in technique and symbolic function from the Horse and Groom. The two figures represent the culture of the Tang elites. Not only are they dressed in fashionable attires of the time, they are engaged in one of the favorite pastimes for the wealthy and the powerful, namely, riding horses in an outing. Unlike the Horse and Groom, which invites the viewers to imagine themselves to be the owner of the horse on display, the two white horses in this set appear to be the possession of their riders. Interestingly, the use of unglazed paint instead of the sancai indicates that Woman and Man Riding Horses might have been made for nonelite tombs, as commoners were not allowed to make sancai sculptures for burial under the Tang sumptuary laws. It is possible that this set might have been made by those who aspired to achieve the Tang elite lifestyle in the afterlife, whereas the Horse and Groom set was made by someone who had enjoyed such a lifestyle while alive and wished to continue to hold onto these privileges in death.
Ceramic sculptures like the Horse and Groom statues have proven to endure over a long period of time. Although they are over a thousand years old, the lack of organic material has enabled them to retain their original shape and color. Their survival might also be due to the production process, in which the work was fired twice, first after molding the clay into shape and again after colors and glaze were applied onto the sculpture. These steps ensured the work to be more durable and less susceptible to deterioration over time. Clearly, the artisans who made figures like the Horse and Groom had found a way to produce works that would last an eternity alongside the dead. Thanks to their fortuitous discoveries in later times, Tang sancai, unlike other art forms that might have been lost to time, is still widely known and appreciated today.
-Jack Odom
[1] 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/
[2] The horse tail is made of some synthetic material. According to the museum staff, it was probably added by the dealer to enhance the work’s appeal before the sale.
[3] Qiqi Jiang, “Tang Sancai” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oxford, 2009), 1.