‘ZHENMUSHOU’, TOMB PROTECTIVE CREATURE ON A HIGH BASE

Description Impressive statue of a fantastic creature with a grotesque human face, high horn and wings, curled up on its hind legs. Its head, the only non-glazed part of the statue, is turned upwards. The face, with vaguely Western features, is severe: the thick furrowed eyebrows, the round and protruding eyes, the broad and flat nose, the fleshy and tight mouth. The face is framed at the bottom by the compact crescent-shaped beard, engraved with schematic parallel strokes, and on the sides by two enormous ears shaped like fans or striped shells. On the head stands a very tall twisted conical horn, which has two reduced horns on the sides of the base. On the face, originally covered with white engobe, the eyebrow hairs and fixed pupils are still painted black. Thin wings rise frontally on the creature's shoulders.