Veronica's and Jessica's Thoughts on the Bowers Museum Exhibit

We visited the exhibit about Chinese History at the Bowers Museum today entitled Chinese Warriors, Temples and Tombs. The exhibit covered 3 Chinese dynasties. Many of the artifacts had left China for the FIRST time, so we were some of the first people to see these amazing pieces of art and history outside of China! Veronica and Jessica each chose some of their favorite artifacts to discuss below. 

Statue of Chinese Woman

By Veronica

The Chinese Woman is my favorite artifact in the Terra-cotta Warriors exhibit because it shows how the Chinese artist's perspective of women and art changed. They use to make woman look delicate and powerless, but after a while sculptors started wanting models who were hefty. I think that their artistic sense of style changed because of the Silk Road. Many cultures came into different countries from here, and I think the diversity if the people influenced the artist's sense of style. 

When Persians came to China, it greatly affected the style of their utensils. Almost all of their plates were metal, but the Persians influenced them. They started making glass plates. Colored plates had the same value as precious gems. They started making more until they weren't that valuable any more. The woman was sitting on a steady strong horse, and she was wearing  (faded) pink clothing. There were two of them, one wearing blue, and the other wearing pink. Below is a picture of a modern day glass plate. The colored glass plate that I saw at the exhibit was fairly similar to this one. The one at the Bower’s Museum was blue, and slightly transparent. It was about the size of two fists. On the rim, it had ornate etchings.

A Trip To The Bowers Museum

By Jessica

       At the  Bowers Museum, there are many stations, 24 to be exact. One of my favorite stations was the station that once held the Budda's pinky finger inside of it. At station 23, there were four boxes. One was a large iron box with intricate designs covering the entire box. They depicted scenes of battles and important marriages. The next box was a slightly smaller gold  box, it had imprints on the side. After that were the ancient writings. Next in line, there was a jade box just a tiny bit smaller than the gold. It was of a rectangular shape with a pointed top.  The  last box was one was a little bit bigger than a pinky finger made of pure crystal. This box held the slender bone of the Buddha. After putting the bone in the crystal box, they would put the crystal box into the slightly larger jade box. Then they would set the jade box, gently in the gold box. They would tightly seal the gold box then place the gold box into the iron box. After tightening the iron box, they would bring it to different monasteries to pray to.