一场讲述 '中国如何成为中国' 的展览

choi

Holland Cotter, 一场讲述 '中国如何成为中国' 的展览. 纽约时报中文网, Mar 31, 2017
http://cn.nytstyle.com/culture/2 ... art-the-met-museum/

, which is translated from

Holland Cotter, Moving Heaven and Earth; Two China's dynasties forged a golden age in art and culture. New York Times, Mar 30, 2017
(exhibition review on Age of Empires; Chinese art of Qin and Han dynasties (221 BC -- AD 220). The Met, Apr 3-July 16, 2017)

Note:
(a) an "exhibition of 160 objects from 32 museums in China * * * it [the exhibition] brings us China becoming China in a big-picture take [a noun, another example of whihc is 'have a double take'] as strange and warm as life"

(b) "Five of those [some 7,000 life-size terra-cotta] figures, four standing, one kneeling, open the Met show (along with two modern reproductions of buried chariots found with them)."
(i) 秦陵一号铜马车为 立车  党士学 and 周婧峰, 青铜之冠：秦始皇帝陵青铜马车（国宝华光）. 人民日报, Oct 6, 2013
http://culture.people.com.cn/n/2013/1006/c1013-23109000.html
(currently at 秦始皇帝陵博物院: "1980年12月，在陕西临潼秦始皇帝陵封土西侧20米处出土了两乘青铜马车（见图一），按前后位置编号为一号车 [立车] 和二号车 [安车 or 鞍车]。铜马车的大小约为真实马车的1/2，车、马、御手全用青铜铸造，通体彩绘，车马器和部分装饰则用金银制作
(ii) 铜车马
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/铜车马

(c) "Even more striking, and less familiar, is another figure found in a different part of the tomb site, this one a beefy court entertainer, nude to the waist, with every fold of flesh and swell of muscle precisely rendered.  There was no precedent in China for any of this, the scale, the naturalism. So what was the source? Historians point to a likely one: the Hellenistic art that was introduced by Alexander the Great to Asia — at Pergamon, for example — and filtered over trade routes to China."
(i) 秦俑 '百戏俑' 坑发现巨人俑. 中新网, June 9, 2012.
www.chinanews.com/tp/hd2011/2012/06-09/107305.shtml
(ii) 古代肌肉猛男長這樣！秦始皇「半裸大力士俑」公開. Taiwan: Apple Daily, Mar 28, 2017.
www.appledaily.com.tw/realtimenews/article/new/20170328/1085752/
(iii) A close-up of the "strongman" (which is what the statute is called in English) is shown in

Carolyn McDowall, Age of Empires: Chinese art, Qin & Han Dynasties at The Met. The Culture Concept, Mar 29, 2017.
https://www.thecultureconcept.co ... ynasties-at-the-met

choi

(d) "The suit [see (e)(i) below)] is in the show, and as we approach through a passageway in Zoe Florence's theatrical exhibition installation, it looks like a sleeping extraterrestrial, a space traveler patiently waiting to be beamed up. * * * At the end of the show — organized by Zhixin Jason Sun 孙志新, a curator of Chinese art at the Met, assisted by Pengliang Lu 陆鹏亮, a curatorial fellow — there's a low closed door, carved from stone, made for a tomb, and painted with figures that could be earthly or celestial. If you passed through the door, which life would you be entering, or leaving, and is there a preference?  An answer may lie in an object hanging on the exhibition's exit wall. It’s a round gilt-bronze mirror with an inscription embossed on its rim: 'May the Central Kingdom be peaceful and secure, and prosper for generations and generations to come, by following the great law that governs all 中国大宁，子孙益昌。黄裳元吉，有纪纲.' Central Kingdom meant China. And for the Qin and the Han, wherever you went, in this world or the next, you were there."
(i)
(A) Zoe Florence. LinkedIn, undated
https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-florence-20456115
("Exhibit Designer at The Metropolitan Museum of Art")
(B) An exhibition at the Met, say, calls for various experts. See, eg, Sara Berman's Closet. The Met, exhibition dates: Mar 6-Sept 5, 2017
www.metmuseum.org/press/exhibitions/2016/sara-berman
("Credits[:] The installation at The Met was organized by Amelia Peck, the Marica F Vilcek Curator of American Decorative Arts and Manager of The Henry R Luce Center for the Study of American Art, in collaboration with Alex Kalman. Exhibition design is by Zoe Florence, Exhibition Designer; graphics are by Chelsea Amato, Graphic Designer; and lighting is by The Met Lighting Design Team, all of the Museum’s Design Department")
(ii)
(A) 鎏金 '中国大宁' 铜镜:
[铸于] 新莽（9～23年）
直径18.6、厚1.3厘米
1952年湖南长沙伍家岭出土
中国国家博物馆藏
镜铭: see next
(B) Li Zhi, 大都会博物馆聚焦秦汉艺术，用文物讲述 '中国' 何以成为中国. artnet新闻, Apr 4, 2017
https://www.artnetnews.cn/art-wo ... ngweizhongguo-60416
(regarding the back of the mirror: "展览以一面鎏金铜镜为尾声。这面铜镜于1952年在长沙伍家岭出土，其背面铸有精美奇谲的仙人神兽，环绕镜缘的铭文上写道：'圣人之作镜兮，取气于五行。生于道康兮，咸有文章。光象日月，其质清刚。以视玉容兮，辟去不羊（祥）。中国大宁，子孙益昌。黄裳元吉，有纪纲' ")

choi

(e) photo captions:
(i) "the jade burial suit of Dou Wan, a Han princess"

满城汉墓是西汉中山靖王刘胜 [165-113 BC; 汉景帝之子，汉武帝异母兄] 及其妻窦绾之墓。河北省保定市满城区 发掘时间 1968年
(ii) " 'Female Dancer,' a vogueing earthenware dancer from the Han dynasty."
徐州汉文化博物馆，女舞俑 (西汉 陶)
or 舞月陶俑
(A) vogue (vi; from Vogue, a fashion magazine): "to strike poses in campy imitation of fashion models especially as a kind of dance"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vogue
(B) 3camp (n; origin unknown)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/camp
(iii) "A detail of 'Cowrie Container With Bull and Rider,' a bronze container from the Han dynasty that was found on an ancient site associated with the Dian 滇 people."
(A) The description of the same in the TEXT: "An eye-stopping, fantastically sophisticated bronze cowrie shell container, swarming with tiny figures in what looks like a raucous Bruegelesque market scene, was produced by the Dian culture in what is now Yunnan province"
(B) cowry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowry
(or cowrie; section 2 Etymology)
(iv) " 'Warrior 武士,' 'Female Courtier 宫女' and 'Court Attendant: Eunuch 太监,' all earthenware sculptures from the Han dynasty. They were meant to provide for the emperor in his afterlife, the warrior offering protection, the eunuch and courtier attending to his needs."

The Chinese terms come from cn.nytimes.com, where, for once, I went for translation, because I have no idea about what museum China owns the three statues.