From the 23rd of June to the 16th of February 2017, the 15th century halls of Palazzo Venezia will host for the first time in Italy, the ancient Chinese ceramics from the collection of the Shanghai Museum – one of the most important museums in China.
Highlights of Ancient Chinese porcelain is an exhibition of 74 precious ceramics of ancient Chinese tradition, valuable evidence of the manufacture China produced between the tenth and the nineteenth centuries: the great variety and prosperity of the Song and Yuan period (960-1368); the pottery of the Jingdezhen kilns under the Ming (1368-1644) was produced mainly for the imperial court; up to the latest Qing era (1644-1911), the apex of maximum splendour and maturity of the art.
China, considered as “the land of ceramics”, is the place where the production of porcelain, a precious kind of ceramic, began before anywhere else in the world. The exhibition will give visitors the chance to be surrounded by traditional Chinese culture through a selection of refined everyday-life objects proving the popularity of porcelain in different historic periods: tools for the collection of drinks and food, but also flower pots, oil lamps, brush holders, headrests, objects for rituals, statues of gods, ink holders for writers, objects related to the funeral habits of the time, candlesticks and incense to perfume clothes.
The exhibition, curated by Lu Minghua and co-curators Dong Zhang and Peng Tao of Shanghai Museum, is under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China, the Embassy of the PRC in Italy and the Ministry of cultural heritage and activities and tourism of the Italian Republic (MiBACT). It is organized by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China (SACH), by the Directorate-General of Museums, by the Lazio Museum Complex, in collaboration with the Shanghai Museum.
The exhibition is part of the Memorandum of Understanding on the Partnership for the Promotion of Cultural Heritage (2010) between the Ministry of cultural heritage and activities and tourism of the Italian Republic and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of the People’s Republic of China. This includes the exchange of permanent museum spaces dedicated to the respective cultures, in order to promote and enable a greater and deeper understanding between the two peoples. Under the agreement, the exhibition Glory of Light and Colour. Four centuries of painting in Venice is currently underway at the National Museum of China in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.