Grey Pottery Rider Figurines with Colored Decoration Male Rider Figurine

Unearthed in the Tang-dynasty tomb of Chengdong town, Yangzhou city in 1977, these rider statuettes serve as a testimony to the aesthetic tastes of the creators via the comparison of male and female riders.

The male rider, two forearms and left leg missing, wears a hair-wrap-style hat, a tall boot, and a long robe with two side slits, characteristic of garments worn by the ethnic minorities living in the north of China. With an ugly clown-like face featuring high cheekbones, a sunken nasal bridge and a protruding jaw, the figurine seems to be spurring the horse, head turning left, the upper half of body lowered, on arm stretching forward and the other backward. The horse with a short tail and four upright legs is stretching its heard forward.