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Grooms and horses
Tang dynasty (618–907), early 8th century
Two panels from an eight-panel screen, ink and color on silk
Each panel: 21 1/8 x 8 5/8 in. (53.5 x 22 cm)
Excavated from Tomb 188, Astana, Turfan, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, 1972
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Museum
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Since Han times, sturdy battle chargers had strategic and symbolic importance in asserting Chinese power along the Silk Road. By the early eighth century, with China's borders secure, a stable of finely bred horses was as much a status symbol as a group of beautiful women, and the depiction of horses became an independent genre as did the portrayal of palace ladies. These horses, their dynamic outlines reinforced with shading, have a graphic energy and an exaggerated rotundity that are typical of Tang depictions of fine stallions. These two panels, from a screen found in an early-eighth-century tomb, are rare examples of Tang painting on silk. The screen survived because of Turfan's unusually dry climate.
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