Exploring Bronze Age China via Museum Collections: A Traveling Seminar

Undergraduate / Graduate

The Chinese Bronze Age, ca. 2000 BCE to 500 BCE, marked the rise and the rapid development of ancient Chinese civilizations. While metallurgy, writing, and state-level society began relatively late in comparison to ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, in terms of the amount of metal used and bronzes objects made, we can truly call this period in China the Bronze Age. Through time, the forms of bronze artifacts, especially bronze vessels, became more varied, the quantity dramatically increased, and the function and role of bronze vessels diversified and gradually secularized. Bronzes vessels, therefore, offer a window to understand the art, the technology, the material culture, the cultural practice, the political interaction, and the religious and spiritual realms of ancient China. This traveling seminar therefore aims to take a group of preselected undergrad and graduate students on museum tours, to study bronzes in exhibitions and to view and examine objects up-close in the context of viewing sessions in study rooms. The course will consist of an on-campus component, during which students will study related research literature, and a museum tour component, during which students will travel to the selected museums and view bronzes on site. The seminar will make one out-of-town trip, while also take advantage of the locally accessible collection at the Art Institute of Chicago. Students need pre-approval to take the course