The Asian Art Museum has collaborated with Chinese museums over many years to bring countless exhibits to San Francisco, displaying both exquisite art objects and monumental tomb warriors. Could there be more? Yes, now there’s a trove notable for massive bronze cauldrons and tiny coins, depictions of writhing serpents and exquisite silk-gauze robes — excavated in the Yangzi River area and then displayed in Chinese museums. Now these objects — more than 150 of them — are on display through July 22 as “Phoenix Kingdoms: The Last Splendor of China’s Bronze Age.
” It’s a scholarly approach to the Zeng and Chu kingdoms that flourished in the Zhou Dynasty as long as 3,000 years ago. Recent scientific advances have made it possible for archaeologists and conservators to excavate and restore many objects without damaging them. As the Asian Art Museum staff points out, waterlogged tombs, which might seem hopeless to a layman, can actually shield fragile objects from decaying by exposure to oxygen and bacteria.
“These very objects, in the last 40 years, have rewritten the history of China,” said chief curator Robert Mintz during a tour of the exhibit. The exhibit organizer, Fan J. Zhang, has called the objects “truly missing links between myth and recorded history.
” The history and archaeology, even the details in the objects’ captions, could be secondary for museum visitors. “You don’t have to read any of the captions to enjoy the exhibit,” Mintz said. �.
