Treasures from Shanghai:
ancient Chinese bronzes and jades
30 January – 27 March 2009
Room 2
Exhibition closed
This display brings together examples of jades and
bronzes from the Shanghai Museum collection.
It explores their role in ancient China as ritual objects and
demonstrates their powerful legacy for later generations. This
legacy is vividly presented in two scrolls that show the collection
of the major official and diplomat Wu Dacheng. This is the first
time that that these scrolls have been included in a major
exhibition of the bronzes from Shanghai.
Jades and bronzes are the most important objects from ancient
China. They were used from very early times for sacred rituals and
burials and were associated with spirits and ancestors; they were
also of great political significance.
Over the centuries, jades and bronzes were collected and
treasured for their beauty and associations. The bronzes also
became the model for vessel types used on later altars in Buddhism,
Daoism and Confucianism. The jades and bronzes of early China
represent the beginnings of Chinese art, and through artistic
excellence and technical virtuosity they set the standard for all
Chinese art that was to follow.
Shanghai Museum is one of the leading museums in China and holds
the finest collection of ancient Chinese bronzes. The museum
preserves the artistic and archaeological record of ancient Chinese
jades and bronzes.
The exhibition includes a selection of Shanghai Museum’s finest
jades and bronzes, with sections on jade and Neolithic pottery;
bronzes from the Shang dynasty; objects from the Zhou dynasty (c.
1050–221 BC); tombs, hoards and technology; and later objects and
the Shanghai Museum.
Exhibition co-organised by the Shanghai Museum and the
British Museum with the guidance of the Chinese Embassy in the UK.
Sponsored by the Information Office of Shanghai Municipal People's
Government, Foreign Affairs Office of Shanghai Municipal People's
Government and Bureau of China World Expo Coordination.
Image: Portrait of bronze collector Wu
Dacheng (1835-1890) (detail). By Ren Xun (1835-1893), face painted
by Hu Qinhan. China, 1892, handscroll, ink and colours on silk.