The marble bust of a woman with a scroll in the early Byzantine Empire and the figure of a seated court lady in the Chinese Tang Dynasty are two female statues presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Although they come from different cultures and time periods, use different materials and manufacturing techniques, they share some similarities. The most obvious is that the intentions of their artists seem the same: to reflect the status of women in the society of their time. Both realistic and non-specific figures, and were made in the golden age of arts, politics and economics, these two statues represent the highest level of craftsmanship of each period. The marble portrait bust of a woman with a scroll (bust below) was created in Constantinople, late 4th to early 5th century, the first golden age of the Byzantine Empire. It was only a few decades after Constantine the Great built his new capital and separated from the Eastern Roman Empire, society and culture were pushed into a new phase, especially in religion. The Eastern Orthodox, as the main faction of Christianity and the main religion of the empire, had massive influence in every aspect of society, especially in the arts of architecture, sculpture, and painting. But against the main trend that almost all female sculptures are religious (Virgins) or deities, the Bust depicts a secular figure – as suggested in the description that “Perhaps as a funerary monument of a prominent member of the imperial aristocracy”. like the bust, the Figure of a Seated Court Lady (court lady below) also came from a heyday of the arts and religion. It was created in the 8th century, the prosperous Kai Yuan period of the Tang Dynasty. The main trend for the art form at that time was Bud... medium of paper... of Kasaya in Buddhism. 可能还加点In addition to these similarities, there are also some differences. The biggest contrast is the plot. As the first example of Byzantine sculpture, the Bust was influenced by Roman culture in reference to its structure, marble, and was derived from the characteristics of the Hellenistic style. The creamy white glossy surface is the most typical material used in the art of engraving in Europe. Turning to Chinese sculpture, the texture of Court Lady is three-color glaze terracotta, in which the Chinese refer to as "Sancai", representative of the most popular and highest level art form of the Tang Dynasty. Works Cited http://www .metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/468716 http://www.jstor.org/stable/3269176 http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of- art/66.25http:// www.ollisandoostermeijer.com/chinese_antiquities/tang_dynasty_028.html