The famous University of Oxford sponsors the Museum of Art and Archeology in the new Ashmolean building. This is a famous place to view some of the greatest artifacts ever placed together for display. Between the lower ground level of thematic galleries and a top floor suite of galleries are three levels. These levels are generally devoted to the ancient world, the medieval world, and the early modern world. China has artifacts on display on all three of these levels. What the ancient artifacts seem to suggest to us is not very easy to notice when one begins to observe the displays. After all, these are important pieces from the ancient to pre-modern worlds which even Asian people living today have little personal connection to. However, when a closer observation and careful research are conducted the implication of the collection is quite provoking for thought.
On the ground floor gallery China's artifacts are displayed up to 800 CE. These include a magnificent collection of bronzes, jades, and early ceramic pieces. Sir Herbert and Lady Ingram presented this excellent collection to the museum in 1956. Their collection contains several thousand Chinese and Japanese works of art. The gallery itself is long and narrow. On one side is the line of cases displaying ordinary bronzes of the Shang period (circa 1600-1100 BCE). Western Zhou (circa 1100-771 BCE), Eastern Zhou (770-250 BCE), and Han (206 BCE-220 CE) dynasty artifacts are part of the collection as well. On the other side is a display that documents the development of formal writing in the Middle Kingdom. It starts with what are called "oracle bones." Then it ends with well-defined Chinese calligraphy. Next to the oracle bones and bronze jar, with a single character written opposite its handle, is a small scroll which reproduces in red ink a scapula shaped bone and its inscription. These pieces tell a fantastic story of the development of art and writing in the ancient world of the East that is informative and revealing. It also demonstrates that civilization developed to a high level in China.
The calligraphy at the bottom is signed by a person named "Dong Zuobin" (1895-1963). It turns out that Dong was one of the primary excavators of Anyang. He records his own inscription to confirm that the scroll was a gift to Dr. Homer Dubs on his departure from China in 1947. He left China in order to take up the chair in Chinese at the University of Oxford. The writing display continues with Zhou bronze inscriptions. It is present with Zhou and Han dynasty coins, clay sealing, roof tiles, and mirrors which bear different categories of functional text.
The early China gallery certainly demonstrates the drawing connections between the pieces on display and the scholarship they have inspired. However, it also shows how writing and artifacts from ancient China have reverberated in dynasties which followed earlier ones. As an example, one can look at the bronze gui on a square pedestal base. This is a rare and excellent piece of mid to late Western Zhou bronze casting. It is additionally distinguished by its often published inscription, but also by its ownership history. The early China gallery proceeds with a noteworthy display of Tang (618-907 CE) sancai wares linking back to the Central Asian and Indian collections. This is also a theme developed on the next floor up in a gallery entitled "Asian Crossroads." This theme explores the connections, mainly through trade, between East and Southeast Asia. It then reaches across the Indian Ocean to Africa, and even to the Mediterranean. If this theme has historical validity (which according to the evidence it appears to), then perhaps the ancient Eastern world was not as isolated as the modern observer today might think?
Furniture and tapestries, including Japanese and Chinese lacquer chairs, and a beautiful Coromandel screen are complemented by smaller displays of ceramics. The ceramics come from Japan, China, Southeast Asia, England, France, and Germany. However, the most direct example of trade between England and China in the gallery is a mid 18th century porcelain plate with a simple border of pink flowers around an image of the gate to the Oxford Botanical Gardens. This is another evidence of the theme of "West Meets East" as a historical event. It deserves to be rightly considered with an open mind. The bold suggestion from the later ceramic pieces seems hard to avoid. Namely, trade between the West and East has been going on for a long time. How long exactly is uncertain. It may be impossible to ever know with any precise accuracy. However, it may also be longer than we had previously thought!
Harlan Urwiler answering all your Asian collectibles questions.
For more information, please feel free to visit my website at: http://www.myorientalgallery.com/.
No comments:
Post a Comment