The Terracotta Warriors of China
New British Museum Show Coming to the United States
The glorious reign of Qin Shihuangdi (r. 221-210 B.C.), Bronze Age China's first emperor, and his funereal statuary are freshly reassessed in a new special exhibition.
The High Museum of Art announced on August 9, 2007 that The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army, a major loan exhibition from the People's Republic of China, will indeed be coming to four United States museums after its initial installation at London's British Museum (September 13, 2007-April 6, 2008). This monumental presentation of some 120 rare funerary artworks and related objects from the Museum of the Terracotta Army and Horses and the Cultural Relics Bureau of Shaanxi Province in Xi’an, China will be on display stateside at the following venues:
- Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, Santa Ana, CA, USA (May 18-October 12, 2008);
- High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, USA (November 15, 2008-April 26, 2009);
- Houston Museum of Natural Science, TX, USA (May 18-September 25, 2009); and
- National Geographic Museum, Washington, D.C., USA (November 19, 2009-March 31, 2010).
China's First Emperor
Bronze Age China's numerous warring states were united under Qin Shihuangdi (r. 221-210 B.C.) in 221 B.C. Territorial conquests during the early years of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.) were accompanied by the first emperor's standardization of weights, measures, writing and coinage as well as the Great Wall of China's initial construction, all wisely intended to promote a national identity. He codified law and administered his empire through a centralized bureaucracy. As in other ancient civilizations, Qin Shihuangdi erected carved stelae or stone monuments that proclaimed his various achievements to the ruler's subjects.
The First Emperor... has allowed modern scholars to publish their interpretations of Qin Shihuangdi's brief reign in light of recent archaeological findings from one of his excavated tumuli (burial mounds) and beyond. Viewed by some historians as an able administrator and others as a despot, he was paranoid about his demise, having escaped assassination numerous times. Evidence suggests that the emperor, obsessed by the concept of immortality, consulted court alchemists to produce elixirs, some made of phosphorous and others of mercury, to enhance his longevity. All of these toxic potions failed and in 210 B.C., he suddenly died.
The Tomb's Discovery and the Exhibition
The accidental discovery of Qin Shihuangdi's tomb in 1974 by a Chinese peasant digging a well revealed a retinue of life-sized terracotta warriors and horses meant to accompany and protect China's first emperor in the afterlife. Some 1000 baked clay soldiers, each with a unique facial expression, have since emerged from the Chinese soil. Subsequent digs in 2000 uncovered terracotta bureaucrats, acrobats and musicians. Bronze cranes, geese and swans were discovered in a separate pit in 2001.
The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army includes some 20 terracotta figures, an assortment of bronze avian statuary and other objects. Interred with Qin Shihuangdi, these fascinating sculptures were meant to accompany the ruler in his death and perpetuate his earthly reign.
Sources:
- Bagley, Robert (ed.). Ancient Sichuan: Treasures of a Lost Civilization (exh. cat.). Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 2001.
- Fong, Wen, et al. The Great Bronze Age of China (exh. cat.). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980.
- Man, John. The Terra Cotta Army: China's First Emperor and the Birth of a Nation. Cambridge: De Capo Press, 2008.
- Portal, Jane. The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army (exh. cat.). London: British Museum Press, 2007.
- Yang, Xiaoneng (ed.). The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People's Republic of China (exh. cat.). Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1999.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
