Free Treasures...for the Viewing C

Amid the spacious and magnificently wooded campusa softness to the works. These pieces had such a
with old growth trees, we approached the red brick,naturalistic look with an uncanny resemblance to early
eclectic Victorian, late 19th Century University Fine Artsphotographic negatives, with darks and lights being
Museum building, AKA, "Old Gym." We hadreversed. I bonded with a Western Han Dynasty
arrived--destination Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN,bronze tripod vessel used to cook meat. Heavy ,
five millennia of Chinese art.substantial and well designed, I wondered what kinds
As avid University Museum buffs, this was a newof meals it cooked in its time.
"site." Joseph Mella, museum director, kindly lead usThis exhibit included bronze vessels, carvings in jade,
through the exhibit --Beauty and Power: Chinese ArtBuddhist images, lacquer pieces, ceramic ware, arts of
from the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Collection.the tomb, scholarly paintings and ancestral portraits.
The wood floored, high ceilinged gallery held 66 piecesJoseph Mella gave a very complete description of the
dating from within the Neolithic period (6000-2000genesis of the present collection with detailed
B.C.E.) to Qing Dynasty pieces (1616-1911).accounts of many of the patrons who made the
Perched on a platform above eye level was a lifecollection possible through generous gifts over the past
sized Buddhist sculpture. This Bodhisattva (a Buddhist35 years. One strikingly elegant piece was called
designation for one who postpones Nirvana until allVessel with incised Lilies. This Ding white porcelain
sentient beings have been saved) was made of clayvase was made for the Royal Family from the
with painted and gilded decoration. Gazing with eyesNorthern Song Dynasty. It was donated in 1999 and, as
from the 17th Century, its serene face and meditativeone of the collection highlights, is valued at $200,000.
lotus pose captured our attention and "held us."We returned the following day to spend more time
Pieces which let us travel further back in time wereencountering the beauty and the power of the pieces
two jade ritual funerary objects from Neolithicand felt awed to have been in touch with "glimpses" of
gravesites. A green "bi Disk" was of flat circular formpast Chinese life, through its art. The gallery offers a
with a smaller concentric opening. A second piecequiet setting to experience works. This exhibit closed
was in the form of a four sided cylinder. Referred toSeptember 22 and was in conjunction with a lecture
as a "cong" this object for the dead had an incisedon September 20, 2007 entitled Sino-Tibetan Tankas
surface and a most perfectly formed hollow shaftfor the Ming Court, given by Marsha Haufler, Professor
interior. What was this tomb piece used for?of Art History at the University of Kansas.
Suggestion was that it was a protective object, usedA new exhibit entitled More Than One: New
in the afterlife. We mused on the significance of usingContemporary Prints and Multiples from the Vanderbilt
jade.University Fine Arts Collection will run from October 4 -
Eugene was inspired by a group of four Qing dynastyDecember 7, 2007
scrolls. The free brush work of paint on the long andVanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery is located at
narrow black paper showed the use of "chiaroscuro "23rd and West End Avenues, Nashville, Tn.
to shade out the twisting and turning of images, lending