A very large and rare lacquered-wood model of a horse

Western Han Dynasty

Footnotes

西漢 彩漆木雕立馬

Provenance: Jacques Barrere, Paris, 30 March 1998
John J. Studzinski, CBE

來源：法國巴黎，Jacques Barrere，1998年3月30日
大英帝國司令勳章受勳者John J. Studzinski珍藏

The result of the Isotrace Radiocarbon Laboratory, Toronto, Sample TO-6506 carbon 14 test, 1998, notes 95.5% probability of the date between 125 BC and 10 AD.

加拿大多倫多Isotrace Radiocarbon Laboratory實驗室碳-14測定結果（1998年，樣本TO-6506）顯示本拍品有95.5%的可能性處於公元前125年至公元10年之間。

Standing foursquare and carved from a single piece of wood, the present horse is exceptionally rare as wood horses dating to the Han dynasty usually had the body carved from one piece of wood and the legs carved separately.

The present horse may have been deemed to embody one of the 'heavenly horses', tianma, 天馬, which Han emperor Wudi had imported from Dayuan, present-day Ferghana, for use in battles against the Xiongnu nomads. According to historical records, Wudi ordered a gilded bronze horse to donate as a gift to the ruler of the Western Region, in the hope that he would, in return, present the Han emperor with some of his swift, long-legged, horses. Upon the foreigner's rejection of the gift, Wudi appointed General Li Guangli to seize the sought-after horses and wage war against Ferghana. The city finally collapsed under the surrender terms of a treaty consisting of an annual tribute of three thousand 'heavenly horses' to be paid to the Han empire.

'The Heavenly Horse incarnates divine prowess, holds the foreign enemy in submission, crossing the sands, it convinces the barbarians of its power ...' Han Wudi mentioned in his hymn included in the 'Rituals and Music' chapter of the 'Book of Han' (Hanshu 漢書).

Because of their endurance and speed, the horses of Ferghana were associated with power and prestige and even thought of to posses divine powers to transport the emperor to heaven. See C.Michaelson, Gilded Dragons. Buried Treasures from China's Golden Ages, London, 1999, pp.47-48. See also Lin Ying, Celestial Horses, Beijing, 2002.

A closely related example of a lacquered wood model of a horse, Han dynasty, carved from a single piece of wood and of a similar size as the present example, is illustrated by the Chengdu Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Jingzhou Conservation Center, 'The Laoguanshan Cemetery of the Western Han Dynasty in Tianhui, Chengdu', in "Chinese Archaeology", 2015, vol.15, p.70; another model of a horse, Western Han Dynasty, carved from a single piece of wood, in the Portland Art Museum, Ohio, is illustrated by D.Jenkins, Masterworks in Wood: China and Japan, Portland, 1976, pp.20-21, no.1.