The four-footed legends of the silk road

But that does not mean there was little room for imagination; in fact the reverse is true. A Tang Dynasty cup unearthed in Henan province had a peacock's resplendent tail wrapped around it to form a horn shape, the peacock itself being an exotic bird. The conical shape points unequivocally to a specific type of wine container known as rhyton, which first appeared in the Aegean region during the Bronze Age, before being produced over wide areas of ancient Eurasia. This particular one, realized in Tang Dynasty tri-colored porcelain (yellow, green and white), is most likely to be the work of a Chinese craftsman.

Another imported animal worth noting is the elephant, not merely because of its bulk, but also because of its close association with Buddhism, which continued to exert its influence through the ancient Silk Road. Bricks painted with white elephant have been discovered in the city of Dunhuang, Gansu, whose fabled grottoes are home to gorgeous religious paintings and rare Buddhist scriptures.

More earthly versions could be found in a gilt bronze elephant and a rhinoceros, unearthed in the burial ground of a Han Dynasty vassal king in East China. Both animals were accompanied by their grooms, who must have traveled the same distance before arriving in China two millennia ago.

In life as well as in death, these real-life animals had competed with mythical ones to win the favor of artists, and thus the chance of eternal life. The latter group included Makara, a sea creature in Hindu mythology that has the body of a fish and the head of a dragon. Another was kalavinka, a Buddhist creation with a bird's torso, a human head and the most exquisite voice. Very often their images grace a gilt silver plate or even gold hairpin for an aristocratic lady.