Terracotta Warriors

Photo Credit: High Museum of Art/Associated Press

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is hosting "The Warrior Emperor and China's Terracotta Army" until June 26th, 2011. 

The Jarvis kids attended the exhibition last week. 

Today was my day to rent the audioguide and enjoy the 200 travelling artefacts, only 26 of which are mentioned on the audio guide.

I was going to be there for four hours and after the first half hour I remembered that I like the museum collapsible stools that let me sit for a long time in one place. 

The lighting for the museum is cleverly done, one set of lights fading as another comes on, highlighting a different part of the statue -- perhaps the face, then the back of the costume which reflects in wall sized mirrors, and then the lighting comes back to the front to highlight the turned up toes of the boots or the under-the-chin tassel of a military hat.

When I asked, the museum attendant went to bring me a folding chair.  I was horrified to see it was a folding wheelchair.  Since he was speaking to me mostly in French I thought, "What am I to do," after I tried to explain to him that it was another kind of stool I had in mind and he seemed mystified, unable to believe he had brought me the wrong thing.

I took the chair and pushed it from one space to another and then found it is pretty cool to sit in one -- a nice soft back and people tip-toe around, giving me plenty of space.  One piece of me felt like a fraud, having just finished a one and a half hour power walk with Catherine and Eric on his way to work -- one that put me back into the shower when I got home.  Yes, I would leap out of the chair and run it to the next exhibit.  And oh, it felt so good not to stand the whole 4 hours, jostled by continuing waves of school children or adult guided tours making their way through the exhibit.

I saw terracotta figures of all kinds: military figures, the foot warriors, the cavalry, the musicians, the servants, the unichs, the horses, funeral chambers, tiles for rooves, examples of money, jewelry, pots for standardizing measurements, etc.

I stayed for a long time in front of a a burial chamber.  The lentil, the two jambs and the double doors were highly decorated with graceful figures: a processional headed by the two people who would be buried therein, scenes of hunting, graceful dancers, the bird of paradise and a unicorn on the front door.  Between the audio guide and the text beside the burial chamber and the wheel chair I had time to find examples of everything they were talking about.

I didn't take my lunch break, though my purse was full of oranges and apples from Catherine's fridge.

 I was afraid I would loose my wheelchair -- the best of all museum stools.

The gift shop was inviting.  The books are always detailed and exhibition specific, one of which I would have bought if I had not been aware that I am already over my luggage weight restriction for flying home. 

More than that there were examples of articles I had already bought in China -- one of which was a 12 inch figure of a substantial Chinese woman from the Qin Dynasty which I carried home from my own visit to China. Walking around and touching the silk jewellery bags, the chopsticks, the terracotta  made-for-museum-purchase replicas, the beads, the children's books on China -- just a lovely finish to a simulation of a day in China.

I had an exquisite afternoon and want to finish off the night with some deep fried chicken feet or at the very least, the taste of freshly cut pineapple and some rice wrapped in a bamboo leaf with a surprise of spicy pork hidden in the middle.

Arta