| Amid the spacious and magnificently wooded campus | | | | a 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 Arts | | | | photographic negatives, with darks and lights being |
| Museum building, AKA, "Old Gym." We had | | | | reversed. 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 new | | | | of meals it cooked in its time. |
| "site." Joseph Mella, museum director, kindly lead us | | | | This exhibit included bronze vessels, carvings in jade, |
| through the exhibit --Beauty and Power: Chinese Art | | | | Buddhist 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 pieces | | | | Joseph Mella gave a very complete description of the |
| dating from within the Neolithic period (6000-2000 | | | | genesis 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 life | | | | collection possible through generous gifts over the past |
| sized Buddhist sculpture. This Bodhisattva (a Buddhist | | | | 35 years. One strikingly elegant piece was called |
| designation for one who postpones Nirvana until all | | | | Vessel with incised Lilies. This Ding white porcelain |
| sentient beings have been saved) was made of clay | | | | vase was made for the Royal Family from the |
| with painted and gilded decoration. Gazing with eyes | | | | Northern Song Dynasty. It was donated in 1999 and, as |
| from the 17th Century, its serene face and meditative | | | | one 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 were | | | | encountering the beauty and the power of the pieces |
| two jade ritual funerary objects from Neolithic | | | | and felt awed to have been in touch with "glimpses" of |
| gravesites. A green "bi Disk" was of flat circular form | | | | past Chinese life, through its art. The gallery offers a |
| with a smaller concentric opening. A second piece | | | | quiet setting to experience works. This exhibit closed |
| was in the form of a four sided cylinder. Referred to | | | | September 22 and was in conjunction with a lecture |
| as a "cong" this object for the dead had an incised | | | | on September 20, 2007 entitled Sino-Tibetan Tankas |
| surface and a most perfectly formed hollow shaft | | | | for 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, used | | | | A new exhibit entitled More Than One: New |
| in the afterlife. We mused on the significance of using | | | | Contemporary 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 dynasty | | | | December 7, 2007 |
| scrolls. The free brush work of paint on the long and | | | | Vanderbilt 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 | | | | |