Molded Flask with Dancing Boys
Sui -Tang Dynasty, 6th - 7th AD, China
Height: 13.2 cm
A molded flask with steeply beveled base and a truncated heart-shaped body. The shoulders are surmounted by two ring handles and a neck with flattened mouth-rim. The front and back are decorated with deeply molded decoration of a male dancer with flowing scarf, surrounded by scrolling vines. The decoration is inspired by Hellenistic design, as transmitted by Sasanian metalwork from the Silk Road, which influenced the late Sui - Early Tang Dynasty Chinese ceramic decorative vocabulary.
A similar piece is illustrated in the Eumorfopoulos Catalog, Hobson Vol. I. p. 24. Another in the British Museum was excavated from the General Fan Cui tomb in Anyang, Henan Province, dated 575 AD.
An example in the Boston MFA, from the Hoyt Collection (accession number 50.883), has a similar form and decoration of a dancer. Another from the Metropolitan Museum of Art also has related dancer imagery.
Provenance:
JJ Lally and Co., New York, 2000
Stephen Kunian Collection, Boston
