Chinese art exhibit brings together objects from several dynasties

"China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750 AD," opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Oct. 12 to critical acclaim. The praise is based partly on the breadth and depth of the art and artifacts collection and partly on the exhibits ability to seamlessly connect the different but equally important culturally formative eras. The exhibit covers more than 500 years of art and is set up to reflect the stylistic changes of each period. Sculpture, textiles and calligraphy individually dominate at least one era. The different focuses are explained by the fact that each emperor wished to promote different kinds of art and so expanded and focused on that particular discipline. The Han dynasty, roughly equivalent in power to the Roman Empire, was known for its "classical learning and practice of art" and its encouragement of lavish decoration of household objects; the Tang dynasty ushered in a politically stable and artistically wealthy era known as the "Golden Age"; the Sui dynasty, which followed the Tang, unified China ca. 581 and produced the bright and animated mythical art viewers now associate with China.

The rooms of the Met reflect the different arts. The walls are painted shades of red, smoky blue and cream. The light is dim in the corners and concentrated in beams over the multiple display cases, so the objects are all clearly illuminated. Several blown-up images of Chinese landscapes were plastered to walls behind the statues, providing context for some of the domestic archeological finds. These images are the majority of the wall pieces, and so the focus of the exhibit coordinators is to promote circulation around the cases. They accomplish this by providing wide ambulatories around the many stands and by spreading everything out through a number of connecting rooms. While this provides an excellent way to avoid crowds, it makes the exhibit feel overwhelming because of the length and tiring because of the distance between each piece. Each case contains fewer than five objects, and there is little opportunity for cross-medium comparison. One is likely to find some visitors walking back and forth between rooms, trying to compare jugs from the Han with the Early Northern Wei dynasty. Most of the pieces are typically quotidian objects including jugs, vases, textile works and sword cases. The primary mediums of these objects are stone, clay, silk and molded metals. There appear to be few purely decorative statues, and any intricately decorated jewelry is sparse.

In a few places the cases hold whimsical statues, including a small Tang dynasty girl entitled "Female Figure." A guard standing nearby confided it was her favorite piece because it was "modern" and looked "completed and realistic." Two unicorns, one wood, one jade are positioned in their cases to butt at each other. Nina Cronin '08 called the unicorns "blithe and unique" and marveled at their "energy and motion." Grant Gitlin '08 wondered whether the "same lore is attached to it that we have." This uncertainty held an interesting place in the exhibit; some of the pieces were dug up as recently as within the past year and specific importance and understanding has not yet been assigned to it all. One wonders what reshaping or refuting of ideas will occur within the next several years or with the discovery of more artifacts. The curators certainly could not be accused of skimping on any source though; the textile collection alone contains pieces from five museums, including the Xingjiang Ugghr Autonomous Region Museum, and the Nanfong Textile Museum. It is remarkable how many museums value such simple, and frankly, unexciting patterns.

This section directly precedes the more vivid and exciting (and for those of us Disney lovers) Mulan-esque pieces. The last room is replete with the bright colors, bared teeth and crushed foes exemplified in the Sui dynasty. Guardian warriors, placed in every corner, are revealed to be inspired by the "Heavenly kings of Buddhist traditions who guard the four quarters of the universe." It is as though they are guarding the end of the exhibit, wishing the visitors luck as they left. One could, of course, approach the warriors in a more lighthearted manner. Leaning in, one man jocularly confided to his friend, "That's what Cheryl looks like in the morning."