CHINE, DYNASTIE HAN (206 AV. J.-C.-220 AP. J.-C.)

This bronze horse represents the grandeur of aristocratic burial customs, where such figures were placed in elaborately furnished tombs to provide the deceased with transportation in the afterlife. During the Han dynasty (206 BC - AD 220), local horse breeds were improved through the introduction of tianma, or "celestial horses," imported from the Wushan kingdom and Ferghana. These new breeds were skillfully depicted by sculptors in bronze, pottery and wood, capturing their remarkable strength and elegance. All members of the Han elite owned horses for both riding and pulling their beautifully adorned carriages.
This figure can be compared to the famous bronze flying horse excavated in 1969 from Wuwei, Gansu province. See Zhongguo Meishu Quanji; Diaosu Bian; Qin Han Diaosu (The Great Treasury of Chinese Fine Arts; Sculpture; Qin and Han Sculpture), Beijing, 1985, vol. 2, pp. 152-155, no. 148. See a magnificent large bronze standing horse from the Eastern Han dynasty (113.98 cm high), crafted in nine distinct sections, which can be found in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (Accession number 2002.45).