Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

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Figure of a dancing lady

  • loan

Glossary

earthenware

  • earthenware

    Ceramic material made of clay which is fired to a temperature of c.1000-1200⁰c. The resulting ceramic is non-vitreous and varies in colour from dark red to yellow.

Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

Publications online

  • The Barlow Collection by the University of Sussex

    The Barlow Collection

    Figures of dancing ladies are well known from the Tang dynasty (AD 618–907) and come in many different poses and outfits, but the present ones do not fall into the classic Tang repertoire. Their poses, hairdo and belted jackets do not conform with Tang styles, and while it is not impossble to find corresponding pairs of figures in the Tang, this is highly unusual, as tomb figures were generally not made in pairs but in larger series.

    The figures are solidly made and very heavy, modelled as a corresponding pair, wearing long skirts and short jackets with overlong sleeves, one with her left arm raised and flapping the sleeve end backward, the other with the right arm raised with the sleeve end in front of her face, the shoes have bent-up tips. The hair is combed back and draped into a tall pointed bun. The grey pottery shows traces of a white dressing and red pigment.

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