| Amid the spacious and magnificently
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| | and turning of images, lending a softness
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| wooded campus with old growth trees, we
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| | to the works. These pieces had such a
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| approached the red brick, eclectic
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| | naturalistic look with an uncanny
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| Victorian, late 19th Century University
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| | resemblance to early photographic
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| Fine Arts Museum building, AKA, "Old
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| | negatives, with darks and lights being
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| Gym." We had arrived--destination
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| | reversed. I bonded with a Western Han
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| Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN, five
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| | Dynasty bronze tripod vessel used to cook
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| millennia of Chinese art.
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| | meat. Heavy , substantial and well
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| As avid University Museum buffs, this was
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| | designed, I wondered what kinds of meals
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| a new "site." Joseph Mella, museum
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| | it cooked in its time.
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| director, kindly lead us through the
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| | This exhibit included bronze vessels,
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| exhibit --Beauty and Power: Chinese Art
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| | carvings in jade, Buddhist images,
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| from the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts
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| | lacquer pieces, ceramic ware, arts of
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| Collection.
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| | the tomb, scholarly paintings and
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| The wood floored, high ceilinged gallery
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| | ancestral portraits. Joseph Mella gave a
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| held 66 pieces dating from within the
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| | very complete description of the genesis
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| Neolithic period (6000-2000 B.C.E.) to
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| | of the present collection with detailed
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| Qing Dynasty pieces (1616-1911).
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| | accounts of many of the patrons who made
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| Perched on a platform above eye level was
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| | the collection possible through generous
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| a life sized Buddhist sculpture. This
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| | gifts over the past 35 years. One
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| Bodhisattva (a Buddhist designation for
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| | strikingly elegant piece was called
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| one who postpones Nirvana until all
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| | Vessel with incised Lilies. This Ding
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| sentient beings have been saved) was
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| | white porcelain vase was made for the
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| made of clay with painted and gilded
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| | Royal Family from the Northern Song
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| decoration. Gazing with eyes from the
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| | Dynasty. It was donated in 1999 and, as
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| 17th Century, its serene face and
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| | one of the collection highlights, is
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| meditative lotus pose captured our
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| | valued at $200,000.
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| attention and "held us."
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| | We returned the following day to spend
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| Pieces which let us travel further back
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| | more time encountering the beauty and the
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| in time were two jade ritual funerary
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| | power of the pieces and felt awed to have
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| objects from Neolithic gravesites. A
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| | been in touch with "glimpses" of past
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| green "bi Disk" was of flat circular form
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| | Chinese life, through its art. The
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| with a smaller concentric opening. A
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| | gallery offers a quiet setting to
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| second piece was in the form of a four
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| | experience works. This exhibit closed
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| sided cylinder. Referred to as a "cong"
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| | September 22 and was in conjunction with
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| this object for the dead had an incised
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| | a lecture on September 20, 2007 entitled
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| surface and a most perfectly formed
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| | Sino-Tibetan Tankas for the Ming Court,
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| hollow shaft interior. What was this tomb
| |
| | given by Marsha Haufler, Professor of Art
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| piece used for? Suggestion was that it
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| | History at the University of Kansas.
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| was a protective object, used in the
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| | A new exhibit entitled More Than One: New
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| afterlife. We mused on the significance
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| | Contemporary Prints and Multiples from
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| of using jade.
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| | the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts
|
| Eugene was inspired by a group of four
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| | Collection will run from October 4 -
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| Qing dynasty scrolls. The free brush
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| | December 7, 2007
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| work of paint on the long and narrow
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| | Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery
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| black paper showed the use of
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| | is located at 23rd and West End Avenues,
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| "chiaroscuro " to shade out the twisting
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| | Nashville, Tn.
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