The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 30, 2023

Polo Player

late 600s-early 700s

China, Tang dynasty

(618-907)

Painted earthenware

Overall: 31.2 cm (12 5/16 in.)

Severance and Greta Millikin Collection 1964.181

Location

not on view

Description

An exercise for military troops, polo was also fashionable among men and women of Tang China, and this polo player is actually a woman dressed in a man's riding habit. It is in keeping with the exuberance of the Tang dynasty that such sporting figures of daily life should be among objects for the afterlife.

Provenance
?-1936?
John L. Severance [1863–1936], Cleveland, OH, to his relatives Severance and Greta Millikin
1936?–1964
Severance A. [1895–1985] and Greta Millikin [1903–1989], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
1964–
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Neils, Jenifer. The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Museum in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1982. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 96, pp. 91–92
Neils, Jenifer. “The Twain Shall Meet.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 72, no. 6, October 1985, pp. 326–359. Reproduced: p. 347, fig. 41 www.jstor.org
Catalogue of the Severance and Greta Millikin Collection. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1990. cat. no. 2
Exhibition history

The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 30-September 5, 1982).

The Severance and Greta Millikin Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 5-September 2, 1990).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1964.181