Terracotta Tour

             

ANCIENT ART: Last Friday, we were fortunate enough to get a sneak preview of a touring exhibit, Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor, at Pacific Science Center.  The exhibition features real figures from the famous terracotta army, as well as a number of artifacts from the First Imperial Dynasty of China. 

It was 1974, when a Chinese farmer was doing some irrigation digging and started to find terracotta fragments. That discovery led to the unearthing of a 2000-plus year old tomb of the first Emperor.

While we waited in a short line outside of the exhibit, we got to chat with Diana, one of the PacSci employees responsible for installing the exhibit. She was a great resource and very enthusiastic about the show.

                         
Here's what CJ had to say about it all ...

Throughout the Terracotta Warriors exhibit at PacSci, we got to see dozens of different terracotta warriors. While the primary focus of the exhibit is the thousands of individual terracotta warriors, there were multiple sculptures and statues of things that were not soldiers (at least not in the traditional sense):

For example, there was one statue that, according to Reilley (an employee at PacSci), was most likely of a fisherman or a musician. The statue in question was of a man on his knees, while holding his arms in front of him in a strange position (most likely either holding a fishing rod, or playing a guitar-esque instrument). There were also some statues of animals (such as pigs, dogs, and horses, if I remember correctly). Noticeably, there were even sculptures depicting the process of building the terracotta soldiers.

One of the first things we saw was a tiny jade relic called the Pei ornament (below, #1). That delighted CJ, because he is presently obsessed with the Chinese Shar Pei dogs. Unfortunately, we did not see any actual Shar Pei, terracotta or otherwise, in the exhibit. ;)

We did, however, see a number of actual terracotta warriors, including this gentleman, believed to represent a high-ranking general.

We spent a fair amount of time checking out the dramatic duo below 

The kneeling one is believed to have been made to represent an archer.

The detail on his armor was amazing. 

The warriors were made a little larger than life sized. And each and every one of their faces was different.

It's fun thinking about the people whom the statues were modeled after. Were they the actual warriors? Were they the faces of the artists' family members? Were they made up?

This terracotta horse was amazing!

One of the artifacts on display was this intricate suit of armor.

 Look how each little tile was cataloged. 

The tiles are made of limestone, and all those holes had to be hand-drilled. Talk about labor intensive!

They even had a (contemporary) piece of art depicting the process of making the warriors.

And now, here's Annabelle to tell you a bit more about the exhibit.

The Terracotta Warriors were larger than life terracotta statues found in the first Chinese emperor’s tomb. The warriors were carved in the shapes of archers, cavalrymen, and even musicians. It is believed they were buried with the emperor to serve him as an army in the afterlife. Since they would be protecting their emperor, the workers making these statues took great care to carve in every detail, down to strands of hair or holes in plate armor. The statues were originally painted in vibrant colors, but as they were excavated the paint peeled off.
 The Terracotta Warriors are now displayed at the Pacific Science Center in a temporary exhibit. The exhibit shows not only the warriors, but how they were made, what they used to look like, their importance, and other relics from their time. The exhibit shows that the emperor even had statues made of acrobats and strongmen to entertain him in the afterlife! The emperor was clearly treated with the highest respect, as he even had his own lane on the roads with which he surveyed his kingdom. The exhibit goes into detail about the expensive bronze and pigments that the emperor had access to, including one known as “Chinese purple” or “Han purple”. This purple pigment has yet to be reproduced today. If chilled enough, it becomes a superconductor with no resistance to electricity. If you cool it even further, however, the pigment transforms from 3d to 2d! If the woman leading us into the exhibit hadn’t told us, we would’ve totally overlooked this incredibly unique dye, and many other amazing things in the exhibit. The exhibit isn’t too large, so I’d strongly recommend that you visit and take your time reading about these larger than life tributes to the emperor.

The gentleman in the statue below was believed to have been a musician.

An emperor in a horse-drawn carriage was one of the astounding finds.

The figures below were believed to have wooden arms back in the day. 

                      

Something about the face on this man really intrigued me.

Other artifacts included ornamental roof end caps.

 And this hollow brick, with stamped patterns.

Diana, who worked on the exhibit, told us to make sure to see the goose.

She said when excavation workers found it, they could see the hand and footprints of the people who had placed in 2,200 years ago. It was like stepping back in time. 

Here's a short video about the exhibition: