Art Of The Day Weekly
#356 - from 18 September 2014 to 24 September 2014
Gilded bronze figure of Sakyamuni, the historical Buddha, Nanjing, China, Ming Dynasty, Yongle mark and period, 1403-1424 (detail)
The Ming, a dynasty that changed China
LONDON – Certain Anglo-Saxon commentators havecalled it, maybe with reason, the ultimate possibility of contemplating a general retrospective of the Ming culture. Indeed the Chinese government has committed to no longer allowing as many works of art –of which some have only been discovered recently -to travel together. The golden age it presents is very precise, as it concerns the first half of the 15th century during which the new masters, while setting up the country’s capital in Beijing, witness an artistic development equal to the one that has taken over in Renaissance Italy at the same time: porcelain, stone sculpture, lacquer, painting on scrolls, gilded bronze, jewelry…
• Ming, 50 years that changed China at the British Museum, from 18 September 2014 to 5 January 2015.