Shanghai Museum
The Shanghai Museum is just fantastic.
This museum houses amazing collections of Chinese art and artifacts that span thousands of years. In addition, it welcomes international touring exhibitions, and when we were there they were showing From Titian to Goya: Great Masters from el Museo del Prado. Myles was particularly excited for European paintings, though I must state that he didn't articulate it in that way. However, given the choices of what the museum had to offer, the "special paintings from Spain" was his first choice of what to see. It didn't disappoint, either. How much do we love great big Spanish paintings, particularly those of religious themes? Murillo's "El Escorial Immaculate Conception"
Of course, the Masters from el Prado isn't limited to just Spanish paintings. There were great representatives from among Flemish, Italian, and French art as well. Shortly after seeing this highly disturbing Rubens (which I wasn't prepared for), Myles promptly declared this Jordaens family portrait his favorite. He called it "That happy family."
After this we explored some of the permanent collections, hitting the galleries of ceramics, bronze, and sculpture, just a fraction of what the museum had to offer. The ceramics gallery was interesting to Myles, because it included some reproductions of different kilns, including one called the dragon kiln, and a model of a town that had its own ceramic works. He was most enthused about the bronzes, though. While one could refer to that collection as thousands of years of three-legged bowls, Myles liked the weapons most of all.
This is a yue with an inlaid cross pattern dating from the 18th to 16th century B.C. Yes, that's right. Most of the three-legged bowls seemed practically identical to me, with subtle differences. There was something in the gallery notes on the wall that mentioned that despite understanding and development of other materials, bronze remained a material of choice in China for centuries longer than other parts of the world. I didn't get a chance to read why because there were more weapons to see! On the way to various swords, I did take a photo of a three-legged bowl that stood out because it wasn't exactly like the others, and it was a little whimsical. I mean, check out the goats trying to climb in. This water vessel dates to between the 7th century and 770 B.C.
One common complaint I hear from foreigners who, like us, rent apartments or villas fully furnished is that the Chinese mattresses are so painfully hard. I mean, I like a firm mattress, but not one with board-like firmness. Seeing this cast bronze pillow in the museum maybe helped me understand how our mattresses are actually a step up in comfort from this.
You can see swords and knives in the background. There were plenty of those.
The sculpture collection was, of course, mostly Buddha's, and wouldn't you know that very few of my photos were in focus. But it had the usual assortment of sleeping Buddhas, laughing Buddhas and even a block of a thousand miniature Buddhas. One of my only decent pictures was of this equestrian, one of a pair, dating to the Tang Dynasty
They probably held weapons at one time, but there is something so unintimidating about their expressions. I found them, to use an early 20th century expression, dear.
Of course we wish we had more time, there was so much more to see, and it really could have taken up the better part of a day to see EVERYTHING.
This museum houses amazing collections of Chinese art and artifacts that span thousands of years. In addition, it welcomes international touring exhibitions, and when we were there they were showing From Titian to Goya: Great Masters from el Museo del Prado. Myles was particularly excited for European paintings, though I must state that he didn't articulate it in that way. However, given the choices of what the museum had to offer, the "special paintings from Spain" was his first choice of what to see. It didn't disappoint, either. How much do we love great big Spanish paintings, particularly those of religious themes? Murillo's "El Escorial Immaculate Conception"
Of course, the Masters from el Prado isn't limited to just Spanish paintings. There were great representatives from among Flemish, Italian, and French art as well. Shortly after seeing this highly disturbing Rubens (which I wasn't prepared for), Myles promptly declared this Jordaens family portrait his favorite. He called it "That happy family."
After this we explored some of the permanent collections, hitting the galleries of ceramics, bronze, and sculpture, just a fraction of what the museum had to offer. The ceramics gallery was interesting to Myles, because it included some reproductions of different kilns, including one called the dragon kiln, and a model of a town that had its own ceramic works. He was most enthused about the bronzes, though. While one could refer to that collection as thousands of years of three-legged bowls, Myles liked the weapons most of all.
This is a yue with an inlaid cross pattern dating from the 18th to 16th century B.C. Yes, that's right. Most of the three-legged bowls seemed practically identical to me, with subtle differences. There was something in the gallery notes on the wall that mentioned that despite understanding and development of other materials, bronze remained a material of choice in China for centuries longer than other parts of the world. I didn't get a chance to read why because there were more weapons to see! On the way to various swords, I did take a photo of a three-legged bowl that stood out because it wasn't exactly like the others, and it was a little whimsical. I mean, check out the goats trying to climb in. This water vessel dates to between the 7th century and 770 B.C.
One common complaint I hear from foreigners who, like us, rent apartments or villas fully furnished is that the Chinese mattresses are so painfully hard. I mean, I like a firm mattress, but not one with board-like firmness. Seeing this cast bronze pillow in the museum maybe helped me understand how our mattresses are actually a step up in comfort from this.
You can see swords and knives in the background. There were plenty of those.
The sculpture collection was, of course, mostly Buddha's, and wouldn't you know that very few of my photos were in focus. But it had the usual assortment of sleeping Buddhas, laughing Buddhas and even a block of a thousand miniature Buddhas. One of my only decent pictures was of this equestrian, one of a pair, dating to the Tang Dynasty
They probably held weapons at one time, but there is something so unintimidating about their expressions. I found them, to use an early 20th century expression, dear.
Of course we wish we had more time, there was so much more to see, and it really could have taken up the better part of a day to see EVERYTHING.
Comments
The link to the disturbing Rubens painting of the "happy family" doesn't work. I'd like to understand why its disturbing.