2008-12-02

Pottery Art with A Long History V – The Tang Tri-Colored Pottery in China (down)

In the tomb of the great right-guard general of the Tang dynasty, a tri-colored pottery shaped in a camel carrying with music figures was unearthed. The camel stands with a perking head, whose whole body is brown yellow, and there are drooping long hairs in the head, neck, from the jaw to the belly, and in the fore parts of forelimbs’ up parts of the camel, it is soft and beautiful. On the back of the camel there is a flat board and on which coved with a blanket, and two figures sit on the flat board with back to back and played the musical instrument, and on the center of the flat board there’s a dancing figure. The tree music figures all have deep eyes, high noses and whiskers, they worn long green lepal clothes and white fur boots, and only the figure in the front wearing a yellow shoulder overcoat. This tall figure of ceramic camel carrying with music and dancing figures is so beautiful and amazing.





The origin places of the Tang tri-colored pottery are Xi’an city and Luoyang city, and Yangzhou city is the connection point between land and sea of the ancient Silk Road. And the main means of transportation on the ancient silk road is camel, so we can image that in the desert, is the camel shared the hard journey with people together, so there’s a sort of intimacy sense between human and camels, its tall body, persistent and burdened expressions moved us much, on whose face, you can even see vast windblown dusts in the ancient silk road.

The Tang tri-colored pottery is the essence of Tang pottery, which had attained its peak in the early and mid times of the Tang Dynasty. After the An Lushan-Shi Siming Rebellion, along with the gradual declination of the Tang Dynasty, and due to the rapid development of porcelain, the production of tri-colored pottery declined gradually too. Although later there appeared with similar styles tri-colored pottery such as "The Liao tri-colored pottery” and "the Kim tri-colored pottery”, but in terms of the quantity and quality of which, as well as the artistic quality, they are all inferior to the Tang tri-colored pottery.

As early as in the early times of Tang Dynasty, the Tang tri-colored pottery were exported abroad and loved by foreign peoples. This kind of multi-colored glaze pottery are famous in the world with its gorgeous colors, its bright and shiny luster, and its elegant, beautiful and exquisite designs, the Tang tri-colored pottery is a brilliant star in antique Chinese pottery.

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