World history and culture: Ancient art of China of the XVII – III centuries BC presented at the exhibition in Moscow

The exhibition “Ancient China: ritual and music”. Bronze and varnishes from the collection of the Museum of Hubei Province” opens on March 3, 2014 at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow).

For the first time the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts features ancient art of China of the XVII – II century BC from the collection of the Art and Archaeological Museum of the Hubei Province.

The Hubei Provincial Museum stands out among other museums in China, which are priceless works of ancient Chinese art. It is located in the provincial capital - the city of Wuhan. Its collection include more than 260,000 sites found during archaeological excavations; 812 items from its collection are among the most precious relics of ancient China and 16 are recognized as a national treasure of the country.

The exhibition features more than 100 sites, most of which come from burials, the Hubei Province. In particular, a large four-chamber tomb of the V century BC, owned by the ruler of the kingdom Zeng, which was discovered by archaeologists in 1978. Here were discovered unique ritual objects, including musical instruments, ritual bronzes, silver, gold, jasper and jade, lacquer items, armor, weapons and bamboo scrolls. For the exhibition in Moscow was selected several items from this unique tomb, which entered the golden fund of Chinese archeology and achieved worldwide fame: it is somewhat ritual vessels, flower stand with lithopone, bronze stand with the image of writhing snakes and the famous sculpture of the mythical bird.