Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The ground floor
One of the museum's major highlights is its ground-floor gallery of
bronzes
,
most of which are more than two thousand years old yet appear strikingly
modern in their simple lines and bold imagery. The cooking vessels, containers
and weapons on display were used for ritual rather than everyday purposes, and
are beautifully made. Many are covered with intricate geometrical designs that
reference animal shapes, while others reveal startlingly naturalistic touches -
check out the cowrie container from the western Han dynasty, with handles
shaped like stalking tigers and lid surmounted by eight bronze yaks. There's also
a charming wine urn with a dragon spout and another shaped like an ox. A
display near the entrance shows how these were made, using an early form of
the “lost wax” method - the original is made in wax, then covered in plaster,
after which the wax is heated and poured away to create a mould.
A crowd-pleasing pottery dog guards the entrance to the
sculpture
gallery
next door. Most of the exhibits are religious figures - boggle-eyed temple
guardians, serene Buddhas and the like. Look out for the row of huge, fearsome
Tang dynasty heads and the figurines of dancers in flowing robes, which
resemble Brancusi sculptures in their simplicity.
The first and second floors
The Tang dynasty steals the show once again in the
ceramics
gallery, which
takes over the first floor. The spiky, multicoloured tomb guardians, in the shape
of imaginary beasties, make the delicate glazed pots look reserved in compar-
ison. The English text reminds you that the delicate art of porcelain was
invented in China; some fine examples from the Song and Ming dynasties are
on display.
On the second floor, skip the calligraphy and carved seals unless you have a
special interest and check out the
painting
gallery instead. T The winning
dynasty here has to be the Ming, as the amazingly naturalistic images of animals
from this time are much easier to respond to than the interminable idealized
landscapes. Look out in particular for Bian Wenzhi's lively images of birds.
The top floor
The top floor contains the most colourful gallery, dedicated to the many
Chinese minority peoples
. To a nyone who thinks of China as a monoculture,
this striking assembly of the weird and wonderful will come as a shock. One
wall is lined with spooky lacquered masks from Tibet and Guizhou (in
southwest China), while nearby are colourfully decorated boats from the
Taiwanese minority, the Gaoshan. The silver ceremonial headdresses of
southwest China's Miao people are breathtaking for their intricacy, if rather
impractical to wear; elsewhere, elaborate abstract designs turn the Dai lacquered
tableware into art. In the section on traditional costumes, look out for the fish-
skin suit made by the Hezhen people of Dongbei, in the far north. The text
might insist on the “Chineseness” of all this but it's quite clear from their
artefacts that these civilizations at the furthest edges of the Chinese Empire,
many of them animist in their beliefs, are culturally very distant from the Han
mainstream, and those from southwest China have more in common with their
Thai or Laotian co-religionists.
The Ming and Qing dynasty
furniture
next door is more interesting than it
sounds. The Ming pieces are balanced and gracious while those from the Qing,
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