ART

"This very brief survey aims to reflect, and to help you to follow, what you are likely to see most of in Chinese provincial and city museums - and to an extent in situ. Many of the museums have a similar layout and similar contents - some of the exhibits being copies of key discoveries from other areas - but often there is little or no explanation in English. In looking at the art displayed in Chinese museums it should be remembered that while for more than two thousand years an empire with a splendid court produced an incredible wealth of art objects, from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, many of these were acquired - more or less legitimately - or looted, by Westerners. Later, too, some of the great imperial collections were removed by the Nationalists to Taiwan, where they are now in the National Palace Museum
Pottery, bronzes and sculpture
The earliest Chinese objects date back to the Neolithic farmers of the Yangshao culture - well-made pottery vessels painted in red, black, brown and white with geometrical designs. You'll notice that the decoration is usually from...

Painting and calligraphy
While China's famous ceramics were produced by nameless craftsmen, with painting and calligraphy we enter the realm of the amateur whose name has survived and who was often scholar, official, poet or all three. It has been said that the four...

Jade and lacquerware
Jade and lacquerware have been constantly in use in China since earliest times. In Chinese eyes, jade , in white and shades of green or brown, is the most precious of stones. It was used to make the earliest ritual objects, such as the flat¡­"