Tang Tomb Unearthed Three-color Pottery Research

As the representation of art of Tang, the issues about sancai ware is always one of the hottest topics in the field of art history, especially after the discovery of the kiln and these objects were excavated from many tombs. Disscussion about the relation between sancai wares and their context and other materials in tombs is benefit for our knowledge about this kind of object, also it is meaningful for researches about tombs of Tang.This study views sancai wares from the angel of their funerary background. It divides sancai wares into several periods and then put the main tombs without any re-cords about their date into this system. On this base, this study concluds the significant features of sancai wares at different time, and also discuss about the divergences and similarities between the sancai wares of Luoyang and those of Chang’an and finally make the conclusion that the style of Luoyang had once influence that of Chang’an.Besides, the issue about utility of sancai wares between different class is also a major topic in this research. Because of the official ackowledge of sumptuous funerals, the disorder of funerary rules and buring many aristocrats at this time, the gap of using sancai wares between the tombs of high class and the middle or low class was wider than ever before and this tendency continued at the next period. Concerning the status of the owners, despite the class of the owners from Luoyang had been close with those of Chang’an during the period of Wu Zetian, the status of the owners from Chang’an is higher than those of Luoyang. At the time of Xuanzong, because the emperor forbided sumptuous funerals, the utility of sancai wares in tombs was reduced gradually.Moreover, this study also analysis the interaction between sancai and painted figurines. There are many resemblances between this two kinds of figurines on shape, color and decoration since they used the same mold which were shared in funerary art at this time. Before720s, most of the technique of painted figurines is very simple so that those of sancai could reach the quality. Also, people during this time tend to pursue luxuries and they believed glazed figurines were much better than painted ones on their function, so sancai figurines was considerably popular at that time. However, with the improvement of painted figurines and the requirement of details was more strict than ever before, the drawbacks of sancai figurines emerged. And then, the curtain of the stage of sancai figurines falled.