A WHITE MARBLE FIGURE OF SEATED LION Tang Dynasty, 7th-8th Century

A WHITE MARBLE FIGURE OF SEATED LION
Tang Dynasty, 7th-8th Century
Shown seated on its haunches with forelegs held out straight and both feet firmly planted on an integral rectangular platform base, fiercely roaring with its head turned sharply to look over one shoulder and its mouth open to show rows of teeth and pointed fangs, the large eyes with incised pupils set in an intense gaze under furrowed bushy eyebrows, the ears pinned back on either side of the thick flowing mane which extends down onto the powerfully arched back, with a short beard curling down in three points onto the muscular chest and with a long tail curled over the right hind leg, the smoothly polished stone of mottled pale silvery-white tone, with finely engraved details throughout.
10 3/4in (27.3cm) high
Footnotes:
唐 白大理石坐獅

Provenance:
Purchased directly from J.T. Tai in the 1980's

來源：
1980年代購自戴潤齋

The moderately realistic yet dynamic pose, typical of the mature Tang sculptural style in the 7th/8th century at the height of Tang dynastic power, must have been the result of the appearance of 'real' lions for the first time in China. Though not indigenous to the country, lion imagery had appeared along the silk routes via the vehicle of Buddhism, sometime in the 4th Century CE, and depicted in Buddhist paintings and cave temples, often flanking the lower registers of Buddha images. Real lions, however, were brought to the Tang imperial court at Changan as tribute gifts. Perhaps the most acclaimed instance was the arrival of a lion from Samarkand in the year 635 CE for the emperor Taizong. So impressed was he, that he ordered one of his highest-ranking advisors, Yu Shinan, a renowned poet and calligrapher, to write a rhapsody in honor of the animal.

A similarly modeled but smaller white marble lion was sold at Christie's New York, 24 September 2020, The James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection, Part II, lot 908. See also an example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art from the 1950 Bequest of Mary Stillman Harkness, accession no. 50.145.330 and illustrated on the website; another white marble lion in the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum, illustrated on the museum's website, object number 933.12.4; and another offered by J. J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art, Ancient Chinese Tomb Sculpture, New York, March 22 - April 10, 2004, no. 10.