The peaked hat, heavy tunic, and boots here are similar to those worn by Scythians in Central Asia. Such burial figures are evidence of the interactions between Chinese and Jewish traders, which are also described in excavated texts.
Earthenware with white slip and polychrome paint
10 1/8 x 3 3/4 x 5 1/2 in. (25.7 x 9.5 x 14 cm)
Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection
33.19
Now on view at the
Asian Art Museum
Resources
Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Chinese Art: A Seattle Perspective, Dec. 22, 2007 - July 26, 2009.
Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Boundless: Stories of Asian
Art, Feb. 8, 2020 - ongoing.
Published ReferencesMahler, Jane Gaston. The Westerners Among the Figurines of the T'ang Dynasty of China. Serie orientale Roma, 20. Roma: Instituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1959. P. 58, pl.XVII,b.
Prodan, Mario. The Art of the Tang Potter. London: Thames and Hudson, 1960. p. 139, pl. 83.
Bowie, Theodore Robert. East-West in Art; Patterns of Cultural & Aesthetic Relationships. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966.
Waugh, Daniel C. "The Arts of China in Seattle." The Silk Road, vol. 12 (2014): pp. 137-152, reproduced p.144, fig. 21.
Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.
