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Vase, China, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period (1736-1795). Nephrite.
Crow Collection of Asian Art. |
Qualities of Jade
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 - Sunday, January 06, 2013
Jade is more than a stone; it is an ideal. Some 2,500 years ago, Confucious (Kong Qiu or Kongzi, 551-479 B.C.) provided a list of likenesses between particular sensual qualities of carved jades such as luster, surface angularity, and veining patterns and qualities of perfected human character such as benevolence, loyalty, and virtue. Confucius elaborated his meaning in a passage from the Book of Rites:
Anciently, superior men found the likeness of all excellent qualities in jade.
Soft smooth and glossy, it appeared to them like benevolence.
Fine, compact, and strong—like intelligence.
Angular, but not sharp and cutting—like righteousness.
Hanging down (in beads) as if it would fall to the ground like (the humility of) propriety.
When struck, yielding a note, clear and prolonged, yet terminating abruptly—like music.
Its flaws not concealing its beauty, nor its beauty concealing its flaws—like loyalty.
With an internal radiance issuing from it on every side—like good faith.
Bright as a brilliant rainbow—like heaven.
Exquisite and mysterious, appearing in the hills and streams—like the earth.
Standing out conspicuous in the symbols of rank—like virtue.
Esteemed by all under the sky—like the path of truth and duty.
For this exhibition, Chinese carved jades haves been chosen from the Crow Collection and matched with each of the equivalencies in Confucius's text. Viewers are invited to test the relationship of sense qualities and character traits for themselves, and to seek understanding of these likenesses from within their own experience.
This exhibition is in partnership with Confucius Institute.
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Festival of the Blossoming Peachtrees in the Paradise of the Queen Mother of the
China, 17th century. Hanging scroll, ink and colors on silk
Loan from the Crow Family |
Fabled Journeys in Asian Art: East Asia
Saturday, July 16, 2011 - Sunday, August 05, 2012
This summer, the exhibition Fabled Journeys in Asian Art will expand to include East Asia. Viewed as a companion exhibition to Fabled Journeys in Asian Art: South and Southeast Asia, which opened in January 2011 in Gallery 3, the East Asian complement draws on works of art from the Crow Collection with distinctive literary and cultural terrain.
The first section of the East Asian portion of the exhibition presents selected paintings, carved jades, and porcelain sculpture inspired by Taoism, which developed in China. Another focus of the exhibition is journeys figured in images of women—with their own expressed balances of yin and yang. The third section of the exhibition features large ceramic horses and camels made for journeys into the afterlife in burial tombs. They are emblems of China’s “this-worldly” expansion into Central and western Asia during the Han and Tang dynasties along roads that came to be known as “the Silk Route.”
Looking farther east, the last section of the exhibition is an array of objects touching on the transmission of Buddhism to Japan, the transportation and exploitation of ivory for finely carved objects, and the search in Japanese ports by Western traders for porcelains that delivered the qualities of form, color, and translucency prized in Asian ceramics, ivories, and jades.
A journey is a compelling metaphor that has perhaps lost some of its caché in our time of high-speed travel and instant communication; however, whether swift or slow; internal or external; linear, ambling, or circular, a journey is a dynamic undertaking that addresses change, among the most persistent and puzzling qualities of our experience of ourselves and the world.
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