: The New Orleans Museum of Art celebrates the donation of a
significant and wide-ranging collection of Chinese ceramics with
the exhibition, "Five Thousand Years of Chinese Ceramics: The R.
Randolph Richmond Jr Collection" on view from February 12 until
April 10 in the Ella West Freeman Galleries.
This exhibition of 100 works provides an opportunity to see
select works of the Chinese potters' art from the Neolithic
through the Yuan dynasties (approximately 4000 BC through the
Fourteenth Century), featuring works from the major traditions
and kilns. The exhibition showcases the extraordinary
achievements of Chinese potters in both earthenware and
stoneware, and in ceramics made for use in this world as well as
the afterlife.
The exhibition's objects are drawn from the donation of Robin and
R. Randolph Richmond Jr of New Orleans, who have collected
Chinese works of art for more than 50 years.
One of the earliest works in the exhibition, the tripod ewer
(Gui) with twist handle, is a product of the late phase of the
Dawenkou culture (circa 2800-2400 BC), one of China's several,
co-existing neolithic cultures. Each of these cultures is
characterized by distinctive pottery, tools, dwelling types, ways
of life and, in some cases, by the working of jade. Common to
all, however, was the practice of provisioning the dead with
goods needed in the afterlife. These goods included ceramic
storage vessels for food and wine, bone and stone tools, items of
personal adornment and, sometimes, jades, lacquers and silk.
The monumental horse, dating from the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220
AD), is an extraordinarily dramatic example of a mingqi.
Standing nearly 4 feet tall, this powerful animal served as an
emblem of the social status and military prowess of its owner.
The Richmond collection is rich in works from the Tang period,
particularly the large-scale figures, like the straw-glazed camel
that would have been part of funerary assemblages created for the
tombs of high-ranking officials and dignitaries. Typically, these
figural groups were composed of pairs of officials, heavenly
guardians, earth spirits, horses, camels and grooms. During
funeral processions, these figures would have been borne on carts
that preceded the coffin, proclaiming to all in attendance the
status and wealth of the deceased, and by extension, the
survivors. At the grave, the figures were arrayed at the tomb's
entrance, attending the deceased during interment. Subsequently
the figures were placed within the tomb, where they assumed their
function as servants and protectors of the deceased in the
afterlife.
The martial values embraced by the Tang were largely rejected the
subsequent Song dynasty that ruled China from 960 to 1279. Song
wares embody a literati aesthetic, their understated forms
deriving from nature, their monochrome glazes evoking the colors
of the earth and sky. The Qingbai notched bowl with incised
decoration, created at the kilns near Jingdezhen, Jiangxi
province, displays many of these Song characteristics. The bowl's
thin, pure white porcelain body is covered by a transparent
glaze, tinged with blue. Six slight notches at the lip rim evoke
the image of an open blossom. The floral allusion is furthered by
the delicate design of buds and tendrils carved and combed on the
interior of the bowl. The glaze pools in the slight recesses and
bevels of the carving, subtly highlighting the decoration.
The New Orleans Museum of Art is at One Collins Diboll Circle
in City Park. For information, 504-488-2631 or www.noma.org.
