A LARGE AND RARE PAIR OF PAINTED GRAY POTTERY FIGURES NORTHERN WEI DYNASTY

each slender figure modeled in high relief, standing with hands clasped, wearing a full jacket with wide sleeves terminating in elegantly undulating folds, a breastplate with buckled fasteners at the shoulders, voluminous trousers falling in rhythmic pleats puddling at the base revealing the pointed tips of shoes, the head gently bowed and the face sensitively modeled, the benign expression articulated with finely incised features, one figure with a small frontal cap, the other with a tall hat textured simulating stiff gauze, the reverse flat-backed, traces of pigment (2)
Height of taller 25 1/2 in., 64.8 cm

Provenance:
Collection of Russell M. Tyson (1867-1963).
Gifted to the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, in 1943 (acc. nos 1943.1137 and 1943.1138).