Woman Holding a Pekinese

In Tang China, ceramic figurines were very often interred with the deceased in aristocratic tombs. This lady cradling a little dog, apparently a Pekinese, in her arms, is one such tomb figure. While many Tang-dynasty tomb figures were decorated with the characteristic green, brown and white ‘three-color’ glazes of the era, this piece only has an underglaze. The slightly reddish base clay was coated with a thick white slip which was then painted, but because the piece was not refired to fix the paints, they have largely flaked off—only faint traces of black in the hair and crimson on the cheeks remain.
In the Sui and early Tang dynasties, female tomb figurines were usually slender, but by the height of the Tang dynasty, full, rounded figures like this one were produced in large numbers. This contrast is encapsulated in a phrase ‘Plump Yang ; Slim Zhao’, referring to the fact that whereas the beautiful Zhao Feiyan, consort of the Han dynasty Emperor Cheng, was of slim build, the famous Yang Guifei (719–756), much loved by Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712–756), was said to be a full-figured beauty. So it appears that the changing form of tomb figurines reflects changing perceptions of beauty during the Tang period.