Figure of a Standing Horse
Unidentified Artist
Date:
c. Late 2nd Century BCE
Medium:
Earthenware with pigment over red slip
Size:
Depth: 7 1/16″
Width: 23 5/8″
Height: 23 1/16″

Ceramic horses such as this one were included in royal tombs of the Western Han period (206 BCE–9 CE). Horses were vital to the success of military campaigns that stabilized and enriched the country, especially its elite.

During the Western Han period, the Xiongnu, horse-riding nomads, encroached on China’s northern border. Western Han foot soldiers, surrounded by chariots, fell to these mounted warriors. In 138 BCE, Han Emperor Wudi (140–87 BCE) sent a general named Zhang Qian (195–c. 114 BCE) westward to secure allies in the fight against the Xiongnu forces. He failed.

However, in Dayuan, an eastern outpost of Alexander the Great’s empire in Central Asia, Zhang Qian learned of hardy horses with great endurance and brought them to China. Astride these Central Asian horses, China’s military reestablished itself, repelled the Xiongnu, took control of Dayuan, and expanded trade. Chinese silk went westward, while goods and new ideas went eastward to China.

Julius Levy Memorial Fund BMA 1987.1

Looking at Military Details with Professor Miles Yu

Transcript

[Aaron Henkin] Hi, Aaron Hankin here from WYPR Public Radio, looking at this horse sculpture with someone who is fascinated by horses and who also happens to be the senior curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Eleanor Harvey. [Eleanor Harvey] What I love about this is the energy. It’s standing stock still. You wouldn’t think that there’s any energy here, but look at how lively the head is. The open, expressive lips, look at the way that it has its eyebrows arched over its eyes. The Mongols were known as great horsemen. They cultivated horse breeding projects. The Mongols, who ended up overtaking China and really cross-breeding with the horses that were already there, gave us a pony type body, which is short in the back, heavily muscled in the rump
and in the chest, with short, stocky legs. Not the tall, slim aesthetic thoroughbreds that we are used to seeing here in the United States, but really a short, spunky, chunky endurance-based animal that can go long distances and has a tremendous amount of inherent strength. This artist knew his horses. He knew that he was dealing with a horse with well-developed muscles, strong
hooves, a high set tail, a thin mane that was usually roached or cut short, so that in military combat it couldn’t be grabbed by an enemy. And I think that is one of the things that comes through in the sculpture is a tremendous sense of pride in the grace and the strength and the energy of the mounts that they used in the Chinese army.

Why Are They Called “Sweat Blood” Horses?

Transcript

[Aaron Henkin] We asked Professor Yu why these prized horses came to have such a name. It’s not a metaphor; it actually describes what happens when they run. [Miles Yu] They sweat like blood, really red blood, because they have some parasites that go into their skin, and cause bleeding