High Museum Presents Terracotta Army Exhibition

Featuring 100 works, including 15 terracotta figures, the exhibition represents one of the largest group of important works relating to the First Emperor ever to be loaned to the U.S. by the Museum of the Terracotta Army and the Cultural Relics Bureau of Shaanxi Province in Xi’an, China. With rarely seen and recently discovered objects from his famed tomb complex, the exhibition will provide insight into the legacy of China’s First Emperor, Qin Shihuangdi, who reigned from 221–210 B.C. “The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army” is supported by Delta Air Lines and UPS. This exhibition is presented in association with the British Museum with support from Morgan Stanley.

“The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army” opened at the British Museum on September 13, 2007, and will run through April 6, 2008. It will subsequently travel to the High Museum, where it will be on view from November 16, 2008, to April 19, 2009. The objects featured in the exhibition will also travel to the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana, Calif., the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Texas, and the National Geographic Society Museum in Washington, D.C., where they will be presented within a different curatorial framework.

“This is a fascinating look into the history of one of the world’s oldest and richest cultures, as well as one of the world’s greatest discoveries—the First Emperor’s terracotta army,” said Michael E. Shapiro, the High’s Nancy and Holcombe T. Green, Jr. Director. “We are proud to continue our tradition of partnering with museums across the globe to bring the world’s greatest art to Atlanta. Our visitors will have the opportunity to see these warriors up close and appreciate their magnificence within the context of their creation, as well as in the history of China.”

The famed terracotta army was initially discovered in 1974. In recent years, ongoing excavations have revealed that the army stood guard over a vast underground palace of far greater complexity than was previously assumed. Exhibition highlights include one of the largest group of life-sized terracotta figures to be exhibited in the United States, presenting both iconic and recently discovered examples:

• Nine warriors from the terracotta army

• Court official, discovered with writing tools hanging from his belts

• A bare-chested strongman

• Musicians

• A kneeling stable boy

• Terracotta chariot horse

• Bronze water birds discovered beside the complex’s underground river.

These life-sized terracotta figures populated the underground tomb complex just as they would have been integral to the activities of the First Emperor’s actual court. With so many figures on view, visitors will be able to see how each assumes a distinct role. For the soldiers, differences in armor detailing and hair style denote military rank. Some stand while others kneel, frozen in the poses of infantrymen, generals, and archers in action.

For the civilian figures, identities are revealed by stature, costume, and stance: the heavy belly of the strongman, the lithe pose of the acrobat, and the small frame of the robed stable boy disclose a carefully orchestrated court life in which each person served a distinct purpose. Further, all figures are individualized with a distinctive facial appearance. Close to 1,000 figures have been excavated from the tomb, and it is estimated that a total of 7,000 may ultimately be unearthed. No two terracotta figures are identical, testifying to a remarkable feat of organized production.

“The First Emperor” will present the objects within their historical and archaeological contexts and will discuss recent research and excavation. In doing so, the exhibition also presents a reassessment of the First Emperor himself, a crucial figure in Chinese history. It was through his military conquest that what we now know as China was unified in 221 B.C. Equally important to the empire were his governmental and cultural achievements, which include the establishment of a centralized bureaucracy, a unified law code, standardized coinage and script, and the building of the Great Wall. The objects on view in “The First Emperor” are at once a representation of the military and civilian worlds he created, and a demonstration of his desire to exert equal control over his afterlife.

Beyond figural sculptures, the exhibition also includes artifacts such as:

• Bronze weapons, including arrowheads, lances, swords and knives

• Stone armor

• Coins and coin molds

• Weights and measures inscribed with the emperor’s decree for standardization.

• A restraining iron indicating the use of forced labor in the construction of the tomb complex. -- www.high.org