六朝博物

choi

Lee Lawrence, Beauty Born of Turbulence; The turmoil that wreaked devastation also generated conditions that freed intellectuals and artists.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/art- ... rbulence-1477345124

Note:
(1) This is a review on the exhibition:
Art in a Time of Chaos; Masterworks from Six Dynasties China, 3rd-6th Centuries. China Institute Gallery, Sept 30, 2016 - Mar 19, 2017.
https://www.chinainstitute.org/g ... current-exhibition/

Beijing's translation: 乱世绝响：六朝艺术

(2) "Gallery director Willow Weilan Hai 海蔚藍 [Asian Looking; sometimes her name is spelled Willow Weilan Hai Chang in English, possibly adding her husband's surname] chose to inaugurate the space by focusing on a particularly fertile period in Chinese art history: the 3 1/2 centuries between the fall of the Han dynasty in 220 and the reunification of China under the Sui in 589. Organized in collaboration with the Nanjing Museum 南京博物院 [a national museum, which is different from Nanjing Municipal Museum 南京市博物館] * * * The exhibition treats the Six Dynasties 六朝 as a unit, pooling works from different times and places into thematic categories—ceramics, sculpture, calligraphy and painting. * * * All this and more took place against a backdrop of political and social turmoil after the Han empire succumbed to internal and external enemies. In its wake, China fragmented and, until the Sui reunited the territory, some 30 kingdoms north and south of the Yangtze river rose, warred and fell. Even though, technically, Six Dynasties refers only to the southern ones, in the US the term has come to denote all of them."
(a)
(i) China Institute  華美協進社
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Institute
(ii) China Institute Gallery  華美協進社 美術館
(b) 六朝
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/六朝
(東吳、东晋以及南朝的宋、齐、梁、陈：在建康（今南京）建都的中國南方六个朝代，因唐朝人许嵩在《建康实录》一书记载了这六个朝代而得名)

choi

(3) "the show leads off with some 40 celadon-glazed pieces. The variety is remarkable. A set of 10 small figures excavated as recently as 2006 includes four performing musicians and a foreigner, recognizable by his pointy headdress. A low-slung vessel shaped like a toad has water grasses etched into its flanks. A 2 1/2 -foot-tall wine vessel, one of a pair considered the largest known celadon vessels from this period, is covered with divine creatures and floral motifs. And three burial urns are each crowned with multitiered structures bursting with people, birds and beasts—boisterous compositions far more complex than any Han precursor."
(a)
(i) celadon  青瓷
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celadon
(also known as greenware (the term specialists tend to use); Celadon originated in China, though the term is purely European; section 2 Etymology)
(ii) celadon
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/celadon
(pronunciation)
(b) "A set of 10 small figures excavated as recently as 2006"
(i) caption for a photo in the exhibition -- the link in (1) -- 青瓷俑, 三国吴 (222-280), 高 13.5-21厘米不等, 2006年南京江宁 [区] 上坊 [镇] 吴墓出土. 南京市博物館藏.
(ii) 南京江宁上坊孙吴墓. 南京市博物总馆, Sept 1, 2015.
http://njsbwzg.com/Article/show_kg/id/70
("【墓主身份】推测为一位孙吴宗室王")
(c) Those items I can not find in the Web (including websites of Chinese museums), are not annotated here.

choi

(4) "Elsewhere, formal and cursive scripts carved into stone bear witness that calligraphy during this period completed the transition from clerical skill to valued art form. And a three-foot-tall bodhisattva, its robe and sashes swaying gently in an unseen breeze, exemplifies early depictions of bodhisattvas as independent figures, equal in status to the Buddha himself."
(a) "formal and cursive scripts carved into stone"

On display is
王兴之 (died 340)、宋和之墓志 [d 348) 及拓片 碑长37.4厘米，宽28.5厘米，厚1.2厘米 1965年南京下关区象山M1出土南京市博物馆
(i) 王兴之
https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/王興之
(妻：宋和之)
(ii) 博古珍赏之六朝墓志书法. 南京市博物馆, Oct 15, 2012
www.njmm.cn/default.php?mod=article&do=detail&tid=750701
(琅邪王氏的《王兴之夫妇墓志》)
(iii) Photos of these 墓志 及 拓片 can be found in

许柏成, 海蔚蓝：'乱世绝响：六朝艺术'追溯中国艺术精神. 艺术中国, Apr 12, 2016.
http://art.china.cn/talk/2016-04/12/content_8698322.htm

choi

(5) "People were no longer bound to Confucianism, the Han state religion. * * * No longer limited to Confucian tropes, tomb décor now included hunts and banqueting—as seen here in once-painted marble panels from a sarcophagus—as well as Taoist sages seated in groves, cups of wine and musical instruments close at hand. Not many paintings from the period have survived, so the two wall-size depictions of Seven Sages are in reliefs stamped onto bricks. They are large jigsaw puzzles with each brick meticulously annotated to ensure its correct placement. But look carefully at the second mural: The lines don't always match up, and the scene never coheres. Nobody knows what derailed the bricklayers, but something surely did, thereby reminding us that all this creativity was blooming during a time with great upheavals."
(a)
(i) "once-painted marble panels from a sarcophagus"

"Panel from real wall of Yu Hang's outer coffin, Sui Dynasty, twelfth year of Kaihuang (592), H. 21 3/8 in. (542 cm), W, (exterior) 97 1/4 in. (247 cm), W. (interior) 81 1/8 in. (206 cm), D[epth]. 8 1/4 in. (21 cm), collection of the Shanxi Museum  虞弘墓石椁后壁石板（椁座石板）纪年墓隋开皇十二年（592） 1999年 山西省太原市王郭村虞弘墓出土 高54.2厘米，外长247厘米，内长206厘米，厚21厘米 山西博物院藏"
(ii) http://art.china.cn/talk/2016-04/12/content_8698322.htm
("展品中色彩最丰富的，莫过于一面出自北方山西省的彩绘石板。画中展现了狩猎、舞蹈、宴乐等场面，以红绿两种主色绘成。石板原是虞弘墓石椁的椁座。虞弘是中亚粟特人，在隋朝为高官，生活具有浓厚的波斯风格")

* 粟特  Sogdia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sogdia
(6th century BC to 11th century AD)
(b) "the two wall-size depictions of Seven Sages are in reliefs stamped onto bricks. They are large jigsaw puzzles"
(i)
(A) 欧阳摩一, 六朝神品：'竹林七贤与荣启期' 模印砖画（国宝华光）. 人民日报, Aug 18, 2016.
http://culture.people.com.cn/n/2013/0818/c1013-22601208.html
(photo caption: " '竹林七贤与荣启期' 模印砖画，六朝，砖，两组，每组描绘四人，每组长2.4米、高0.88米，南京博物院藏")
(B) This People Daily critique talked about the 1960 discovery, which is what is found in New York exhibition. A photo caption says:

"Modern rubbing of impressed-brick mural from south wall of tomb at Xishanqiao depicting the Seven Sages of Bamboo Grove and Ron Qiqi, Southern Dynasties period (420-589), horizontal scrolls, ink on paper. 32 3/8 x 93 3/4 in. Collection of the Nanjing Museum 竹林七贤与荣启期拼镶砖画拓片, ）南朝（420—589），现代拓本纸质卷轴（两轴）； 各为纵82厘米，横238厘米南京博物院藏
(ii) 竹林七贤与荣启期
https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/竹林七賢與榮啟期