1-234-266 - The Museum of East Asian Art/Heritage Images

Brown spotted white zodiac figure, Five Dynasties period/early Northern Song dynasty, China, 11th century. An unusual brown spotted white zodiac figure of fairly large size. The figure's hands are shown holding a sceptre. He is wearing an elaborate crown on which rests a ram's head. His long robes extend to the ground, his padded shoe ends are upturned and stick out from under robes. The head is well modelled. The whole figure is covered with an extensively ferruginous splashed white glaze. There is a single character incised on the back. This figure represents the ram, which can be seen in the top of his head-dress. The ram/sheep is the eighth animal in the Chinese zodiac.