The Warrior Emperor and China's Terracotta Army to Tour Canada
By STAN PARCHIN
January 27, 2010
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| Chinese, Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.). Kneeling Archer. Clay with pigment. Museum of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuangdi. © Wang Da-Gang. |
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| Chinese, Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.). Horse. Terracotta. © Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau and the Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center, 2009. |
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| Terracotta Warriors in Pit (aerial view). Museum of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuangdi. © Wang Da-Gang. |
The
Royal Ontario Museum announced today that
The Warrior Emperor and China's Terracotta Army, the largest special exhibition of more than 250 Qin and Han Dynasty artifacts from more than a dozen important archaeological institutes and museums in Shaanxi Province, will visit Canada for the first time from 2010 to 2012. Pending the approval of the third location, the show is scheduled to appear at the ROM, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Glenbow Museum in Calgary and the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria.
Dr. Chen Shen, Senior Curator and Bishop White Chair of Far Eastern Art and Archaeology in the ROM’s World Cultures department and the exhibition's organizer, said, “This Canadian tour is a newly developed and contextually different presentation than previous international displays. Many of the artifacts have never before left China. In fact, some have not yet been displayed in any museum there.”
The Exhibition's Contents
On view are 18 impressive life-sized terracotta sculptures, including 16 human figures (generals, armored soldiers, lower ranking officers, archers, an acrobat, a cavalryman and a charioteer) and two horses. They're joined by six warrior heads and three half-sized kneeling servants, all from the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.) and unique in terms of their appearance. Arranged chronologically, the statues are described within the broad historical, social and artistic contexts of the time. The exhibition also explores the rise of the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-221 A.D.) through smaller sculptures (some discovered in an emperor's tomb in the 1990s), among them multicolored terracotta soldiers, ladies and farm animals that reflect aspects of daily life during this relatively peaceful period in Chinese history.
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 were accompanied by the first emperor's standardization of weights, measures, writing and coinage, the creation of a comprehensive road and canal system and 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 Warrior Emperor and China's Terracotta Army allows modern scholars to present their interpretations of Qin Shihuangdi's brief reign in light of recent archaeological findings from one of his excavated tumuli (burial mounds). 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 he died suddenly in 210 B.C.
The Tomb and Its Discovery
Beginning at 13 years of age, Qin Shihuangdi oversaw approximately 700,000 workers who constructed his elaborate underground tomb complex and enormous mausoleum. Archaeological investigations indicate that they are larger than initially thought and include an entire palace with royal gardens.
The accidental discovery of Qin Shihuangdi's tomb in 1974 by a Chinese peasant digging a well revealed a fascinating retinue of life-sized terracotta warriors and horses meant to accompany and protect the autocrat in his death as well as perpetuate his glorious earthly reign. Some 2000 baked clay soldiers, each with an individual facial expression, have since emerged from three ancient pits in the Chinese soil. Subsequent digs in 2000 uncovered statues of bureaucrats, acrobats and musicians. Bronze cranes, geese and swans were discovered at a separate site in 2001. Ongoing excavations continue to unearth countless treasures.
Sources
Bagley, Robert (ed.). Ancient Sichuan: Treasures of a Lost Civilization (exh. cat.). Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 2001.
Dien, Albert E., et al. Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China's First Emperor (exh. cat.). Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2008.
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.