Mortuary Figurine

Mortuary pottery horse, glazed. With green saddle. Symbolizing status and power, horse figurines would have been placed with other ceremonial and everyday objects in a tomb. In the Tang Dynasty, the saddled horse was more common than the ox cart which in earlier periods symbolized a means of transport to the afterlife.

The tri-color glaze, known as sancai, was more expensive then plain terra cotta. It should indicate that the horses were made for an aristocratic occupant. Often mass-produced using a piece-mold technique, horses were slightly altered through adjustments in the neck and legs.