Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
South and Southeast Asia
The other half of room 33 starts with a beautiful gilt-bronze statue of Tara, the goddess
of good fortune, who was born from one of the tears wept by Avalokiteshvara (who
embodies compassion and stands on the east side of the marble well). She heralds the
beginning of the
South and
Southeast Asian
antiquities, a bewildering array of artefacts
from places as far apart as India and Indonesia. It's worth seeking out cabinet 55 with
its Tibetan depictions of tantric sex, its
dakinis
(fierce minor goddesses who dance on
demons) and Chitipati, lord of the graveyard. Cabinet 39 features a whole set of ivory
figures from Kandy, representing the local royal family and o
cials, including the
all-important umbrella-bearer. Beyond are larger-scale
Indian stone sculptures
,
featuring
a bevy of intimidating goddesses such as Durga, depicted killing a buffalo demon with
her eight hands (cabinet 25).
6
Korea
The centrepiece of the BM's Korea gallery (room 67), up the north stairs from room
33, is a nail-free reconstruction of a
sarangbang
or scholar's study, a serene, minimalist
space set aside for the gentleman of the house. Among the other exhibits, which range
from illuminated Buddhist manuscripts to contemporary Korean objets d'art, look out
for the bamboo fans (cabinet 21), used by dapper Korean gentlemen, their woven
horsehair hats (cabinet 19) and the
paduk
gaming board (better known in the West as
Go). There's a seventeenth-century white porcelain “full-moon” jar, admired for both
its irregularity and its Confucian austerity.
Chinese ceramics - Sir Percival David Collection
Next door is an entire room given over to
Chinese ceramics
(room 95), with
nearly 1700 objects on display, dating from the third to the twentieth centuries, which
once formed the largest private collection in the world. A few star exhibits get labels,
like the “David vases”, by the entrance, from 1351, in the blue-and-white Ming style
that became so popular in Europe - touch-screen computers will help you identify the
rest. What is so striking about many of the pieces is their apparent modernity - the
bold single-colour porcelain wares at the far side of the room wouldn't look out of place
in the 1960s, though in fact they date from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Among the
most celebrated Chinese ceramics are the
Ru
wares whose “crackling” glaze was seen as
a merit rather than a defect from the Song dynasty onwards.
Japan
The sensitive materials used in Japanese art mean that the items on display in the
Japan
(rooms 92-94) galleries change frequently. What you get is an educational sample laid
out chronologically from the Neolithic Jomon period to the manga culture of
contemporary Japan. In between, you get to inspect colourful Buddhist scrolls, Shinto
shrines, nineteenth-century woodblock prints by artists such as Hokusai and Hiroshige,
examples of
netsuke
(ornamental toggles) and
inro
(cases for holding small objects).
Centre stage, there's a wonderfully ornate suit of Samurai armour, complete with the
sort of horned helmet and mask that Darth Vadar might wear. There's also a section on
the traditional tea ceremony alongside a reconstructed tea house, where the museum
puts on regular demonstrations.
PRINTS AND DRAWINGS
The sheer volume of the BM's
prints and drawings
- two million prints and fifty thousand
drawings - means there's only space for a changing display in room 90. However, with an
incredible collection of drawings by Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Rubens and Rembrandt,
plus prints by Dürer and works by Hogarth, Constable, Turner and Blake - to mention but a few -
the exhibitions are always worth exploring.
