Court Lady with High Chignon (c. 700–750): Art, History and Details

Court Lady with High Chignon (c. 700–750) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Tang figurines placed in the tombs give a vivid picture of everyday life. Images of elegant ladies in various hairstyles, costumes, and activities suggest the fashion of the time. This slender court woman's clasped hands are covered by long, narrow sleeves. Her v-neck blouse is tucked into a floor-length skirt with empire waistband. A long stole drawn from the bodice and across the back falls between her wrists. Her skirt is painted with thin red stripes, the waistband with double red circles, and the stole with white rosettes in unfired pigments. Her black hair is piled into high angled chignon. Together with other figurines—court officials, musicians, dancers, hunters, foreign travelers, horses, camels, guardian warriors, and guardian animals—such tomb sculptures accompanied the deceased in the afterlife.

Object facts

• Title: Court Lady with High Chignon
• Date: c. 700–750
• Culture: North China, Tang dynasty (618-907)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: earthenware with polychromy
• Dimensions: Overall: 31.6 cm (12 7/16 in.)
• Collection: China - Tang Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1983.25

A detail from the museum

Tang aristocratic women had a high degree of freedom, especially in contrast with the Neo-Confucianism of the later Song dynasty.

Collection credit

Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Turner, Evan H. “Year in Review for 1983.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 71, no. 2 (1984): 38–79.
• Neils, Jenifer. “The Twain Shall Meet.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 72, no. 6, 1985, pp. 326–359.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.