Sotheby auction, Hong Kong, 9 October 2022, lot 3620
bronze figure of a rhinoceros, Tang dynasty
Despite the apparent local extinction of the rhinocerosby the Tang dynasty, their image persisted and wereconsidered majestic and auspicious, as exemplified by apair of monumental stone sculptures of rhinocerosguarding the spirit road of the founding emperor of theTang dynasty, Gao Zu (566-635), one of which is nowpreserved in the Xi’an Beilin Museum. According toEdward H. Schafer in The Golden Peaches ofSamarkand, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1963, pp. 83-4,tamed rhinoceroses were brought by foreign embassiesand presented to the Tang court, some were eventrained to perform during palace entertainments at thecourt of Emperor Xuanzong (r. 713-756) and were keptin captivity in the imperial park at Chang’an.
