Medieval History
Art history is not a jigsaw puzzle waiting to be assembled. It?s more like a smashed sheet of reflective glass, continually reshattering, with splinters scattered here and there, many lost forever. With luck and work, scholars retrieve a few splinters, put them in a guessed-at order and turn on some lights. The result is an exhibition.
If the pieces are bright and the scholarship sharp, the show can be a subtle stunner, as is the case with ?The World of Khubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty,? the latest in the Metropolitan Museum of Art?s line of benchmark Chinese exhibitions. This one encompasses some 300 objects, from filigreed hairpins to a couple of megaton sculptures, most of them hard-won loans from China.
Click here to read this article from the New York Times
See also the earlier article The World of Khubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty ? Exhibition at the Met from Medievalists.net
- Marco Polo Really Did Go To China, New Study Finds
It has been said that Marco Polo did not really go to China; that he merely cobbled together his information about it from journeys to the Black Sea, Constantinople and Persia and from talking to merchants and reading now-lost Persian books. But in Marco...
- China, Kenya To Search For Medieval Chinese Ships On Kenyan Coast
China and Kenya have signed an agreement to jointly explore the Kenyan coast for wrecks of ancient Chinese merchant ships. The three-year project, funded by China's Ministry of Commerce, will explore Kenya's coasts around Malindi City and the...
- The Decline And Fall Of The Mongol Empire
A new article examines how the four Mongol empires collapsed, and concludes "that in all cases, ?fall? was the result of internal factors, about which there was nothing that was inevitable, and that there is little evidence of a long ?decline?." "The...
- Song Dynasty Murals Discovered In Tomb, Depict Medical Scene
A mural unearthed from an ancient tomb in the northwestern Chinese province of Shaanxi in 2009 depicted how traditional Chinese medication was practiced during the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1279), according to archaeologists. Song Dynasty murals are...
- Medieval Art Exhibitions Worldwide
Virgin and Child from Toporc, Hungarian National Gallery Currently on view in London Two new exhibitions mentioned before on this blog are now open: D'or et de feu - L'art en Slovaquie à la fin du Moyen Âge, at the Musée du Moyen Âge...
Medieval History
The Spirit of Xanadu, Morphing Across Borders
Art history is not a jigsaw puzzle waiting to be assembled. It?s more like a smashed sheet of reflective glass, continually reshattering, with splinters scattered here and there, many lost forever. With luck and work, scholars retrieve a few splinters, put them in a guessed-at order and turn on some lights. The result is an exhibition.
If the pieces are bright and the scholarship sharp, the show can be a subtle stunner, as is the case with ?The World of Khubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty,? the latest in the Metropolitan Museum of Art?s line of benchmark Chinese exhibitions. This one encompasses some 300 objects, from filigreed hairpins to a couple of megaton sculptures, most of them hard-won loans from China.
Click here to read this article from the New York Times
See also the earlier article The World of Khubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty ? Exhibition at the Met from Medievalists.net
- Marco Polo Really Did Go To China, New Study Finds
It has been said that Marco Polo did not really go to China; that he merely cobbled together his information about it from journeys to the Black Sea, Constantinople and Persia and from talking to merchants and reading now-lost Persian books. But in Marco...
- China, Kenya To Search For Medieval Chinese Ships On Kenyan Coast
China and Kenya have signed an agreement to jointly explore the Kenyan coast for wrecks of ancient Chinese merchant ships. The three-year project, funded by China's Ministry of Commerce, will explore Kenya's coasts around Malindi City and the...
- The Decline And Fall Of The Mongol Empire
A new article examines how the four Mongol empires collapsed, and concludes "that in all cases, ?fall? was the result of internal factors, about which there was nothing that was inevitable, and that there is little evidence of a long ?decline?." "The...
- Song Dynasty Murals Discovered In Tomb, Depict Medical Scene
A mural unearthed from an ancient tomb in the northwestern Chinese province of Shaanxi in 2009 depicted how traditional Chinese medication was practiced during the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1279), according to archaeologists. Song Dynasty murals are...
- Medieval Art Exhibitions Worldwide
Virgin and Child from Toporc, Hungarian National Gallery Currently on view in London Two new exhibitions mentioned before on this blog are now open: D'or et de feu - L'art en Slovaquie à la fin du Moyen Âge, at the Musée du Moyen Âge...