A Walk Through the Chinese Galleries (filmed at former museum location in Golden Gate Park)

Oh the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco contains one of the great collections of Chinese art outside of China this art was produced over a span of six thousand years and served many different functions hello my name is Brian Hogarth and I'm director of education at the Museum in this program we're going to tour the Chinese galleries and look at a variety of objects in different media these objects reflect not only aesthetic values but also technical achievements and cultural beliefs we'll start with objects from ancient burial sites and tombs these objects cover thousands of years from the neolithic period through the Bronze Age and continuing in the Han and Tang dynasties let's begin with this small bottle from the Neolithic period it's about six thousand years old Neolithic means new Stone Age at this time China as a nation did not exist people lived in small groups moving from a hunting and gathering life to a more settled life in small villages they'd begun to domesticate animals and raise crops so they needed pots in which to store foodstuffs and very special pots like this one were painted and buried with the dead this is early evidence of a belief in an afterlife the people who made these earthenware vessels are known as the painted pottery cultures they lived in the north central plains of China these pots were handmade by coiling and then smoothing the clay control of the elements earth air fire and water was the first step in transforming raw materials into something both useful and beautiful in the Neolithic period one material began to be revered above the rest jade there are two types of jade jadeite and nephrite Jade I seen in this beautiful Vaz with handle has a high gloss and has only been used since the 18th century nephrite has a waxy surface and comes in a variety of colors nephrite was the material of choice for most of China's history here we see a variety of nephrite Jade associated with burials this round disk with a hole in the middle and this round tube with square corners were produced by the liang zhu cultures in the east coast of china about 4,000 years ago we don't know what these objects originally meant but we do know that they were placed in graves sometimes in great numbers over the bodies of certain individuals centuries later Chinese texts refer to the disc as a B symbolizing the heavens and the tube as a song symbolizing the earth Jade is very hard it cannot be cut but must be abraded or worn into a shape it seems that certain people had the means for power to have these stones laborious ly worked into these forms something that took months if not years to produce in such quantities the power and prestige associated with Jade set the stage for another important material bronze like Jade bronze required an immense amount of labor to produce bronze is an alloy of copper tin and sometimes lead in ancient times it had to be mined and cast using ceramic piece molds here was another technological breakthrough here we can see how a small bronze vessel would have been cast first you make a ceramic model of the vessel with all the designs on it using fresh clay you make an impression of the designs on pieces called molds the original model is then scaled down to form a core leaving a tiny space around it for the molten bronze to be poured in here you can also see that space here after cooling the mold pieces are broken off leaving the finished bronze here which over time develops a greenish gray patina we know about this process because we find remnants of the ceramic piece molds at ancient foundry sites unlike Jade bronze had a practical application it could be used to make weapons and these weapons could both extend and defend the community the Bronze Age coincides with the rise of the first Great States in China the shang and the jo dynasty's dynasties were ruling families with a common lineage or group of ancestors these ancestors were worshiped because it was believed they could act on behalf of the living to influence the affairs of state this meant that they had to be cared for and what better way to care for your ancestors than to offer them plenty of food and wine bronze was used to cast ritual vessels that were used in banquets honoring the ancestors this large bronze ritual vessel was used to heat wine in just such a banquet the tripod shape allows the wine made from millet to be heated underneath it comes from a tomb of the late Shang Dynasty around the 1200s before the Common Era objects like this were buried with xiong royalty in huge Pitt tombs along with members of their family and human sacrifices the vessel is covered with intricate designs notice the monster mask design on the surface of many Shawn vessels this is sometimes called tau ta we don't know what the design meant but it's not hard to imagine how impressive these vessels were when they were bright and shiny and new placed high on an altar table the steam from the food and the wine rising up to attract the spirits of the ancestors around 1050 or 10:45 before the Common Era the joke conquered the Shawn the Joe had been vassals of the Shawn so their right to rule was based not on lineage but on what they called the Mandate of Heaven a new moral imperative ancestors remained important but changes in ritual practice gradually took place how do we know all this the earliest writing from ancient China survives on oracle bones used for divination or fortune-telling by the Jo period we see longer inscriptions on the bronzes giving us more information here is one of those inscriptions on a food vessel we can read about the Duke of Joe who is later admired by Confucius as an exemplary ruler this large wine vessel or who also has a long inscription inside telling us it was cast by a father for his daughter's wedding here we have an ancient bell suspended and played by tapping on the lower rim it's inscribed with a wish that the owner's father in future generations enjoy its sound bronzes were now being cast to commemorate the living as well as the dead designs were changing as well gone were the fierce pouty masks replaced by abstract wave shapes by inlay and by complicated interlocking patterns as the Zhuo dynasty progressed power shifted to a number of competing states and more and more aristocrats and local rulers sought the trappings and ceremonial regalia of the royal court sacrificial victims began to be replaced by models usually made of clay the most famous example of this is the vast terracotta army of the first emperor who died in 210 before the Common Era this practice extended into the succeeding dynasty the Han a period of relative stability and expansion that corresponds roughly to the time of the Roman Empire in the West as the economy expanded the demand for tomb objects increased beliefs in the immortality of the soul became more elaborate this ceramic vessel corresponds to the shape of a bronze vessel and is decorated with images of heavenly clouds these lead glazed burial objects give us a vivid picture of all aspects of daily life during the Han Dynasty here we have model gate pillars capped with roof tiles decorated with Phoenix birds and door Guardians one of the most unusual burial objects on display is this money tree dating from the eastern or later Han Dynasty about the 2nd or 3rd century of the Common Era it consists of a ceramic base topped by a series of branches cast in bronze on which hang replicas of Han Dynasty coins on the base we see animals and hunting scenes the branches are filled with creatures covered in feathers these are the immortals overseeing this heavenly realm is a popular figure of the times known as Siwon move the Queen Mother of the West the whole tree is a progression from earth to heaven an image of abundance and wealth there's a small figure who appears on the stem part way up the tree this is probably an image of the Buddha but he's not yet an independent image of worship in China but still part of Shi wrong moves Kingdom the next major dynasty was the tongue with its capital of present-day Xian the tongue was a cosmopolitan dynasty when all things foreign were in vogue horses and camels traders and musicians those who plied the Silk Road across Asia were all depicted in the arts these two mob jex made around the eighth century were decorated with a three color glaze called fancy that was allowed to drip over the object making the pieces appear very lively here we see what appears to be a man but it's actually a woman of the court dressed in the robes of a foreigner and holding a tropical bird as if to present a tribute gift in the next part of our tour we'll look at Buddhist arts these are sculptures dating from just after the Han Dynasty through the Tong and Song dynasties a period of about a thousand years throughout Chinese history there were a number of foreign incursions perhaps one of the greatest outside influences was that of Buddhism Buddhism began in India with the life of Siddhartha Gautama about the six or fifth century before the Common Era at the same time Confucius was teaching in China about social values Prince Siddhartha left his life in the palace to search for enlightenment and to find release from the cycle of rebirth and suffering which he saw around him Buddhism came to China centuries later with traders and merchants along the sea routes and overland along the Silk Road after the Han Dynasty China fell into a period of chaos and division Buddhism offered a message of salvation and it didn't discriminate between men and women rich and poor educated and uneducated this is one of our most important pieces in the Chinese collection because it's the earliest known dated Buddha from China the date written on the back is equivalent to our date of 338 of the Common Era we know it's the Buddha because of the special signs that appear on him such as the cranial bump the meditative pose and the monks robe this piece was probably modeled after a northern Indian image that made its way to China along the Silk Road several hundred years later northern China was ruled by the foreign Wei dynasty they adopted Buddhism a foreign religion as a way to legitimize their rule in this stone steely we see a central Buddha figure accompanied by two Bodhisattvas surrounded by a mandorla or flame like halo Bodhisattvas are enlightened beings who've chosen to forego Buddhahood in order to help humanity the main figures are dressed in Chinese court robes and sculpted in a more elongated style with great attention paid to the pleats of the robes and a slight smile on the faces the carving is shallow with the emphasis on flowing lines like calligraphy how did the majority of Chinese take to Buddhism here was a problem Buddhism was a monastic religion and for monks and nuns that meant a rejection of family life very different from Confucian values for the layperson however Buddhism encouraged donations as a way to build merit but also as a way to honor one's family so in this case an entire family has pooled their resources to Commission this Steeley for placement in a temple individual Buddhist figures also adapted more Chinese characteristics one was the bodhisattva figure known as Avalokitesvara the Bodhisattva of compassion one who hears the pleas of humanity in China this figure became known as Guan Yin now Bodhisattvas are more lavishly dressed than the Buddha indicating their presence in the world and this Tong Dynasty bronze figure of guanyin has a gentle sway to the hips and long flowing robes much more sensuous than the stiff northern wave figures we just saw over time beliefs and stories surrounding Guanyin increased Guanyin could appear male or female depending on the circumstances this is a large wooden version known as a water and moon Guanyin dating from the Song Dynasty about the 12th century originally brightly painted it would have stood in a temple its gentle face peering down on the worshiper in the next section we'll look at Chinese ceramics particularly the high fired ceramics made in the later Imperial dynasties from about 1000 CE II to the 1700s we've already seen how the Chinese Potter made a variety of grave goods out of low-fired ceramics but it was the high fired ceramics that became famous all over the world the first attempts to make high fired ceramics began in the shang dynasty but between the tongue and the Song dynasties that is from about the nine hundreds to the 1200s the Chinese began to perfect many of the techniques in ceramics that would make the word China synonymous with fine dinnerware the Chinese Potter had to move beyond earthenware which is not very strong and cannot hold liquids the technical answer to these problems lay in the choice of clays firing temperatures the atmosphere of the kiln and in manipulating colors and glazes the ultimate goal was the high fired wares we call porcelain a key ingredient was kale and clay seen in this shame ware from the late Tang Dynasty porcelain is fired at the highest temperature and this is what gives it its strength you can see here that the glaze and the clay body are totally fused during the northern Song Dynasty the Imperial Court began to patronize ceramic production kilns began to specialize in different kinds of wares ceramics became elegant and refined these June wares are noted for their brilliant splashes of crimson or purple glaze long chuan wares had a smooth thick glaze that resembled Jade it was about this time that a series of foreign rulers took over China first in 1127 when the sun court fled south and again about a century later when the Mongols took over the whole of China during troubled times people tend to look to the Past for comfort and inspiration in Chinese art this is called archaism in this guan wear layers and layers of glaze have been added crackling of the glaze has been emphasized the form of the vessel is based on the ancient Jade song that we saw earlier a clear reference to the past these ding wares were the first mass-produced porcelains they were stacked in containers inside the kiln to keep the flames in the ash off the surface of the vessels ding wares were decorated by being pressed over a mold but in this yojo vessel molding has been combined with incising so that the glaze pools in certain places so Joe wares by contrast were decorated with lively motifs sometimes painted or sometimes by adding a slip and then incising the surface to create contrasting colors in the south potters working at jing dejenne began to combine two ingredients that gave them the beauty strengths and forms they were looking for these ingredients were kale and clay and a crushed porcelain stone called patents ooo ching by wares were among these new porcelains with a light bluish tinge it was the introduction of cobalt blue mainly imported from the Middle East that allowed Potter's to decorate their wares with elaborate designs in a color that could withstand the high firing temperatures of porcelain these were the famous blue and white wares that came to perfection during the mongol period and the Ming Dynasty that followed blue and white porcelain c-couldn't to the needs of a variety of customers they were highly sought after across Asia and eventually in Europe in China they were used at court in Buddhist temples and given his gifts one last great innovation remained how to apply other colors on porcelain with the same painterly effects these techniques were perfected during the ching the last of the imperial dynasties before the 20th century previously colors had been obtained from copper iron and cobalt a whole new range of colors now came from enamels but enamels could not withstand the high firing temperature of porcelain so the Chinese fired the porcelain body first at high temperatures then added the enamels on top of the glaze and fired it again at lower temperatures if you look closely you can see how the enamels sit on the surface of the glaze here in contrast to the blue and white where the decoration is under the glaze in some cases individual colors were prescribed for certain members of the court and Potter's worked hard to achieve perfection of colors that even today are difficult to match in quality in other examples we see narrative scenes men riding on their horses to visit friends an official departing from a rendezvous with his lover and the lady reading indoors seated in front of a large painted screen these leisurely pursuits reading writing painting and calligraphy visiting friends admiring antiquities playing music we're all associated with the traditional group known as the literati these were the educated elite the scholars who had passed the rigorous exams based on the Confucian classics the last section concerns painting and decorative arts of the scholar class our examples will be drawn mainly from the Ming and Qing dynasties over the last few centuries scholars filled the ranks of the government bureaucracy but occasionally they retreated from official life and took up artistic pursuits such as painting calligraphy and poetry these three perfections are at the heart of Chinese painting traditional Chinese painting is all about brushwork the manipulation of line and the various strokes that express one's inner being poetry is often part of the painting and calligraphy is considered to be the highest form of artistic expression the landscape paintings of the literati were meant to express a feeling or sentiment often referring to an earlier landscape master or tradition Chinese painters were not as concerned as Western painters to show a specific place for the illusion of space from a single perspective this is a hanging scroll painting called striving for the summit by contemporary Hong Kong artist Harold Wong it's a monumental landscape with waterfalls mountains and swirling clouds humans are tiny in relation to the natural world Wong admires Chinese painting because it allows for individual expression while drawing on an ancient tradition Wong began by copying the works of earlier artists to learn from and pay respects to that tradition this harkens back to that respect for ancestors that we saw expressed in the ancient bronzes we're back in the Jade gallery only this time we're looking at a relatively modern Jade from about a century ago that's a copy of an ancient bronze vessel the same tripod shape that we saw earlier in the program the scholars placed antiques in their studies as a sign of respect for the past and as an indication of their taste and refinement by referencing the past Chinese art objects became layered with meaning for example this Jade water container from the Ming Dynasty was made for use with brush painting it's in the shape of a fruit called Buddha Han citron because it resembles the hands of a Buddha the pronunciation of the term for Buddha's hand foo show sounds like the words for blessings and longevity many of the Jade's we see here probably were given as gifts between friends gifts that convey good wishes for blessings fortune and longevity we've seen a range of objects made of ceramics Jade bronze carved stone brush and ink these objects are imbued with cultural aesthetic and technical qualities that attests to the variety and brilliance of Chinese culture over many millennia thanks for joining me for this brief tour of the Chinese galleries at the Asian Art Museum

Channel: Asian Art Museum

Views: 73,860

Keywords: china, tang, han, asian art, Brian Hogarth

Id: YRUkcNppsCc

Length: 29min 40sec (1780 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 15 2009