TIME AND PLACE

Bronze Age culture extends across several thousand years of history in China. The unique features, refined ornaments and patterns, and elegant inscriptions of Chinese bronzes highlight their superb casting techniques. Distinct among the bronze cultures of other areas of the world, bronzeware in China developed alongside ritual practices and records the historical trajectory and spiritual core characteristic of Chinese civilization.

The Shanghai Museum is famous for the breadth and depth of its vast bronze collection, which includes objects ranging from 1800 to 2 BCE, comprising examples from the Erlitou culture through the Western Han dynasty. The collection includes world-renowned treasured artifacts and well-documented works of fine art, such as the Da Ke Ding, the Xi Zun, the Jin Hou Su Bianzhong, and the Wu King Fuchai He.

The Shanghai Museum has selected over thirty of the most precious and exquisite bronzes from its collections for this exhibition, desiring to convey to the American audience the extraordinary artistic charm and rich historical significance of these objects.

—Chen Xiejun
Director, Shanghai Museum

TIMEline

EXHIBITION CATALOGUE

A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition, with essays by Zhou Ya, senior curator of ancient bronzes at the Shanghai Museum, and Liu Yang, curator of Chinese art and head of the Department of Asian Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The catalogue is published by the Clark and distributed by Yale University Press.
Call the Museum Store at 413 458 0520 to order.