Lot Essay
This rare large stone tomb relief would have formed one wall of a 'spirit chamber' attached to a tomb, such as the stone funerary relief illustrated by O. Sirén, Chinese Sculpture in the von der Heydt Collection, Museum Rietberg, Zürich, 1959, no. 2, which is carved with an inscription dating it to 114 AD. Although the carved decoration is different from that of the present relief, the manner in which the registers are divided and bordered is similar. This is also true of a long marble funerary relief dated to the 1st-2nd century AD in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, illustrated by T. Lawton, "Two Han Funerary Reliefs", Oriental Art, Autumn 1960, vol. VI, no. 3, pp. 90-6, fig. 2, where the decoration is arranged in two rather than three registers. The top register has nine dragons of the type seen on the present relief, referred to as huang long by the author, and the bottom register has similar equestrian figures and horse-drawn chariots proceeding to the right where they are faced by a bowing figure. On both the present and Boston relief the faces of the figures are facing outwards towards the spectator. The lozenge border to the side and above, and the segmented border (railing) below are also very similar to those of the present relief.