New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art launched a new exhibition titled "Recasting the Past: The Art of Chinese Bronzes, 1100-1900," which aims to be the most comprehensive study of Chinese bronzes during this period and examines the antiquarian spirit in China since the 12th century. The exhibition is co-organized by The Met and the Shanghai Museum.
The exhibition kicked off last month and will be open to the public in New York from February 28 to September 28, 2025, before moving to the Shanghai Museum from November 12, 2025, to March 16, 2026.
According to China Daily, the exhibition includes around 200 works, featuring important bronzes as well as a selection of paintings, ceramics, jades, and other media, demonstrating the dialogue across millennia between artifacts shaped by different eras. It includes around 60 loans from eight institutions in China, Japan, and Korea.
Major works included are a monumental 12th-century bell with an imperial procession from the Liaoning Provincial Museum, documented ritual bronzes for Confucian temples from the Shanghai Museum, and luxury archaistic vessels made in the 18th-century imperial workshop from the Palace Museum in Beijing.
"While bronze as an art form has long held a significant role throughout China's history, this exhibition explores an often-overlooked time period when a resurgence of craftsmanship and artistic achievements revitalized the medium," said Max Hollein, director and chief executive officer of The Met, according to News China.
"This exhibition attempts a long-overdue reevaluation of later Chinese bronzes by seeking to establish a reliable chronology of this art form across the last millennium of Chinese history. The exhibition will also distinguish outstanding works from lesser examples based on their artistic and cultural merits," said Lu Pengliang, curator of Chinese Art at The Met.
The exhibition "Recasting the Past" is a record of the evolving artistry of Chinese bronze from the 12th to the 19th centuries, focusing on the fugu (return to the past) bronzes that tell a story of tradition and innovation across the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties.
The Shanghai Museum's painting "Lady Reclining Over an Incense Cage" by Chen Hongshou from the Ming dynasty depicts people's elegant life in the mid-17th century and how an incense burner in the form of a duck was used. Lu placed a bronze incense burner of this kind from The Met together with the painting to show the connection between different art forms.
Lu discovered a Daoist ritual cauldron from the Cernuschi Museum (Museum of the Asian Arts of Paris) and a Daoist ritual vessel from the Saint Louis Art Museum, which share the same mark and are believed to be from the same user in the Qing Dynasty. "Our studies show that the two items must once belong to the same person and they have specific functions in Daoism," Lu told Xinhua. "It's interesting to put them together in the exhibition and the two items also will be displayed in Shanghai later this year," he added.
"This whole project is a project of partnership, of friendship, of collegiality, of an ability (on) what we can achieve when you do something together," said Hollein at a press preview of the exhibition on Thursday.
"This exhibition marks another milestone in the collaboration between our two museums. I am also very pleased to share that this is an exchange exhibition, which will meet Chinese audiences at the Shanghai Museum in November this year," said Chu Xiaobo, director of the Shanghai Museum. He added, "In today's world, dialogue and mutual trust are more precious than ever, where cultural exchanges play an irreplaceable role."
"We look forward to deepening partnerships, expanding collaborations, fostering friendships, and strengthening our shared commitment with global colleagues, to preserving and celebrating the beauty of human civilizations," Chu said at the press preview of the exhibition.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.
