Images(3)

Figure of foreign merchant holding wine skin

Date8th century

Label TextThe clothing and robust physical features of this figurine clearly depict a non-Chinese man, attesting to the cosmopolitan nature of the Tang period, in which foreign goods were plentiful along with non-Chinese traders, merchants, and entertainers.

Object number38.6

Photo CreditPhoto: Susan A. Cole

Exhibition HistorySan Francisco, California, San Francisco Museum of Art, Tomb Statuettes, 1937. Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles County Museum, Arts Of T'ang Dynasty, 1957. Portland, Oregon, Portland Art Museum, Gift to a City: Masterworks from the Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection in the Seattle Art Museum, Nov. 3 - 28, 1965. Cat. no. 32. Bloomington, Indiana, Indiana University, East-West In Art, 1966. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, The Museum: Mixed Metaphors, Fred Wilson, Jan. 28 - June 13, 1993. Text by Patterson Sims. No cat. no., reproduced p. 29. Tokyo, Japan, Suntory Museum of Art, Luminous Jewels: Masterpieces of Asian Art From the Seattle Art Museum, July 25 - Sept. 6, 2009 (Kobe, Japan, Kobe City Museum, Sept. 19 - Dec. 6, 2009; Kofu, Japan, Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, Dec. 23, 2009 - Feb. 28, 2010; Atami, Japan, MOA Museum of Art, Mar. 13 - May 9, 2010; Fukuoka, Japan, Fukuoka Art Museum, May 23 - July 19, 2010). Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Luminous: The Art of Asia, Oct. 13, 2011 - Jan. 8, 2012. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Boundless: Stories of Asian Art, Feb. 8, 2020 - ongoing.Published References"Handbook, Seattle Art Museum: Selected Works from the Permanent Collections." Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1951, p. 62 (b&w) Davidson, J. LeRoy. "T'Ang Art in Los Angeles," in Artibus Asiae, Vol. 20, No. 1, 1957, pp. 55-60, illus (b&w) 58 "Gift to a City" exhibition catalogue. Portland, OR: Portland Art Museum, 1965, cat. no. 32 Thomas, Edward B. "Oriental Art in the Seattle Art Museum," in Art in America, no. 1, 1965, illus. p. 61 Trubner, Henry. "Asian Art in the Seattle Art Museum: Fifty Years of Collecting." Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1983, p. 8, illus. color Kawai, Masatomo, Yasuhiro Nishioka, Yukiko Sirahara, editors, "Luminous Jewels: Masterpieces of Asian Art From the Seattle Art Museum", 2009, The Yomiuri Shimbun, catalogue number 70 Waugh, Daniel C. "The Arts of China in Seattle." The Silk Road, vol. 12 (2014): pp. 137-152, reproduced p.143, fig. 20. Foong, Ping, Xiaojin Wu, and Darielle Mason. "An Asian Art Museum Transformed." Orientations vol. 51, no. 3 (May/June 2020): p. 61, reproduced fig. 22 (installation view).

Credit LineEugene Fuller Memorial Collection

Dimensions14 5/8 x 10 x 6 1/2in. (37.2 x 25.4 x 16.5cm)

MediumEarthenware with sancai (tricolor) glaze