Visitors to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, will get a chance to see a rare collection of ancient Chinese art . that otherwise is on view only at premier museums in China.
Visitors this summer to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, formerly the Prince of Wales Museum, will get a chance to see a rare collection of ancient Chinese art that otherwise is on view only at premier museums in China.
The ‘Treasures of Ancient China’ exhibition traces the evolution of Chinese art from stone spades, axes and sickles of the Neolithic age to the Buddhist-influenced art of the Ming and Qing dynasties. There are around 95 art objects in stone, pottery, porcelain, jade bronze and gold.
The Buddhist period created a new class of religious sculptures in stone, bronze and grotto carvings. Before the arrival of Buddhism from India, the Qin and Han dynasties had started the trend of buying the dead with luxurious gifts. The 8,000-strong army of life-sized terracotta warrior figures found under a burial mound is from this period. The current exhibition features two of these terracotta figures.
The collection of jade craft which is unique to Chinese art, straddles the Neolithic period when it started as an extension of the stone industry to the more sophisticated creations of the modern periods. Similarly, the evolution of Chinese pottery from the white stone ware of the Shang period 3,500 years to the monochrome, tri-colour and finally polychrome porcelain is delineated through the exhibition’s large collection of pottery and porcelain.
The exhibition had a stop at the National Museum, New Delhi before moving to Mumbai. In Mumbai, the display will be open to the public till June 6, after which the exhibition will go to the Salarjung Museum, Hyderabad and then to the National Library, Kolkata.
The exhibition is a follow-up to the India-China Friendship Year of 2006 that started a series of cultural exchanges. As part of the programme, a exhibition called ‘Treasures of Ancient India’ had travelled to four Chinese cities during 2006-07. The exhibition has been jointly organised by the Archaeological Survey of India and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China.
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