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14. RARE XINGYAO FIGURE OF A LION
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The animal is seated on a circular base on its haunches, with head raised. Continuing the tradition of Tang ceramic sculptures of lions, this is a highly sculptural model with naturalistically contoured and defined limbs, strong facial features, and a mane composed of tightly wound curls. The curls were very likely applied individually in layers. The front two limbs are hollowed at the rear presumably to facilitate air flow in the kiln to prevent explosion. The glaze has an unctuous creamy-white colour with a highly tactile and lustrous appearance. The nearest example to this model is a seated lion with its rear limb raised scratching the turned head in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, published by Rose Kerr, Song Dynasty Ceramics, no. 32. Like the present example, this was possibly the lid of a large censer and dated Northern Song Dynasty. Rose Kerr notes: ‘The great fame of Xing ware rests in its designation as the earliest true porcelain made in China, and hence in the world’. Although known from literary records of the Tang period, the Xing kilns were not actually discovered until about 1980. Another fragment of a lion’s head attributed to the Ding kilns of the Northern Song period, but with comparable individually modelled and applied elements is published by Maxwell Hearn, Ancient Chinese Art: The Ernest Erickson Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1987, catalogue no. 127. A pillow sculpted with a lion of similar features to the current example, formerly in the Carl Kempe Collection, is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World’s Great Collections, vol. 8, fig. 70. |
