This snowy Sunday was a perfect museum day. We braved the crowds and took in a much-hyped exhibit at the Musée des Beaux Arts: China's Terracotta Army.
John:
I admit to not knowing about this incredible archeological find before seeing this exhibit. I wanted to go because I don't know much about Chinese history, and China's a pretty big deal, so I thought I should know about that.
At first, I was underwhelmed. The exhibit starts with the usual bowls and knick-knacks that you find in museums, fittings for a horse bridle or belt buckles: basically the regular stuff of people who are famous because we found their stuff, but who might not otherwise have been. Or perhaps people who wanted to be famous, but weren't: the title of Duke ranked just below that of a King in the states at that time. It was often appropriated without permission. Sort of like Hollywood royalty, perhaps.
The bits about architecture were neat as well: a drainage pipe, and a mock-up of a palace. I find it funny that people look so hard at the mock-ups. They are not likely to be that close to the real thing, it seems to me.
I found the objects very similar to Egyptian artifacts. The installers (instalationists?) of this show knew what they were doing, though, hinting in that direction. The history lesson written around the exhibit was instructive. Ying Zheng was the name of the First Emperor of China. From his state of Qin (from whence the name comes, I imagine), he conquered all the other states and unified the land. The next room informed us on his thoughts about succession and the afterlife, and noted some interesting finds in a tomb: stone helmets and armour. The exhibit itself is coy about these: No one knows what they are for, it says, they are too heavy for real people.
The well-informed visitor knows where this is going. I did not. The next room has what looks like a couple statues of soldiers. Ok, no big deal. I read the plaque and it refers to Pit #1. It slowly dawns on me that they found not just a couple statues, sort of like you might find in an Egyptian pyramid, to honour the dead, but an entire army made of stone, all drilled up and ready to march. It blew my mind.
But wait, there's more. Not only did this guy build an army to protect himself in the afterlife, he built the whole afterlife! An entire world created out of clay lived underground near the burial mound that housed his tomb. There were courts, gardens, acrobats, animals. And as true to life as can be, right down to the horses' balls. Well done on the museum for revealing this so gradually, bit by bit, so as to maximize the wow factor. I suppose for those going in knowing what it was all about, the effect is lessened, but it hit me pretty hard.
The sections on the subsequent Han dynasty further emphasises the scale and scope of Zheng's production. The next emperors thought it was a good idea, so they built similarly populated tombs, but they were no where near as detailed as the first.
It's amazing the lengths people will go to to ensure they are remembered. Ironically, the First Emperor built this complex post-life society with the mind that he and his line would rule for 10,000 years. They lasted 4. His son was apparently ineffective and the empire broke up into civil war until the Han dynasty calmed things down.
Miriam:
Une semaine plus tard je vous écris enfin mon blog sur le Musée des beaux arts. En général c'est mon musée préférer à Montréal, mais cette exposition m'a laissé un peu indifférente. Je ne sais pas si c'est parce qu'il y avait trop de monde, pas assez de contenue ou parce que j'ai eu l'impression que les objets exposés étaient principalement des reproductions, mais je suis sortie de l'exposition sans rien de plus. Normalement les musées me changent au moins temporairement, mais cette fois, rien.
Je vous conseillerais d'aller voir l'exposition si vous avez une passion particulière pour la culture chinoise et que vous puissiez y aller à un moment peu achalandé.
Meilleur chance la prochaine fois.
