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Cover Photograph
This Tang Dynasty guardian stands jauntily atop a reclining ox, with his clenched right hand—which apparently once held a club, spear, or the string of a bow—pulled back and his left hand either in position to hold the bow or in an admonitory gesture. He wears a simple helmet. Signi cant to this Tang Dynasty (7th or 8th century CE) earthenware guardian gure is the glaze used to depict elements of his armor. Details for similar earthenware could be done more precisely with paints, but the glaze of this piece— though harder to handle than paint because the glaze tends to run—offered a more striking and durable nish.