Each earthenware figure stands at attention, head held high, back straight, feet firmly planted, each holding a shield under his left arm while the right arm is drawn across the body with hand clutched to hold a spear. They are similarly dressed in long tunics with wide collars and long sleeves, belted at the waist and covering pantaloons ballooning above the knees, slightly flaring to expose the toes of the footwear. One figure has a high-winged bun on his smooth pate. His ears are large and his eyes wide and expressive. The second figure’s facial features and expression are more subdued. He is distinguished by the helmet hugging his skull and pulled down over his ears. Red pigment on the clothing of each figure survives in abundance with blue present on the helmet.
The figures here are fully modelled in the round and filled out with some bulk eschewing the flat, slender-figure style common to many figures of the Northern Wei period that is considered the period’s signature style. However, less standard images are common and here the more full-bodied appearances might be to some extent attributed to the bulk of their clothing. Northern nomads would have introduced the garb seen here, along with the helmet one of the present figures wears (figs. 1-2).
The scowling expression struck by one of the soldiers, a far cry from the sweet smiles we are often greeted with when meeting Northern Wei folk, is an alternative Northern Wei countenance, usually adopted for warriors to express their fearsome nature as seen in an armored figure with shield (figs. 3-4) and a cavalryman on horseback (figs. 5-6). It has been noted that warriors without shields are well know but those with shields intact are quite rare.1
1.See Annette L. Juliano, Art of the Six Dynasties, China Institute, New York, 1975, p. 53.
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Fig. 1. An earthenware drummer, Northern Wei dynasty, early 6th century, William
Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, after Annette L. Juliano, Art of the Six Dynasties, China Institute, New York, 1975, no. 21, p. 45.
Fig. 2: Detail of fig. 1.
Fig. 3: A painted earthenware warrior with shield, Northern Wei dynasty, early 6th century, C.C. Wang collection, after Annette L. Juliano, Art of the Six Dynasties, China Institute, New York, 1975, no.28, p. 53.
Fig. 4: Detail of fig. 3.
Fig. 5: An earthenware warrior on horseback, Northern Wei dynasty, early 6th century, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, after Annette L. Juliano, Art of the Six Dynasties, China Institute, New York, 1975, no. 31, p. 56
Fig. 6: Detail of fig. 5.
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