Bronces Arcaicos Del Museo De Shanghai: Festines, rituales y ceremonias

Museu Nacional D'Art de Catalunya, Spain, 2004 Book. Very Good. Soft cover. Spanish text.; Paperback; 24 x 29.5 cm.; 1.3 Kg.; 220 pages with colour illustrations throughout.; Used book in fine condtion. Interior as new. Minor signs of shelf wear on the exterior.; Exhibition catalogue.; From the 21st century BC, with the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, China enters the Bronze Age. From this period are preserved, among others, different bronze vessels of great beauty and complexity, used to offer food and wines to the ancestors. This shows us that already at that time the gastronomy and the feast were of great importance in the culture and the rite. In addition, the bronze denoted power as evidenced by the fact that many of those vessels were commissioned by kings and nobles, who took them on their last trip to enjoy them for all eternity. With the Iron Age (4th century BC), the bronzes will lose their ritual function. The discovery of bronze vessels in tombs or graves will be considered as an aupitious sign and will be object of study of emperors and lawyers of later dynasties. The presented exhibition is the final materialization of the will of both cities. The 31 pieces donated by the Shanghai Museum according to a selection from a studied process, form a chronological journey that starts from the end of the mythical Xia dynasty (XVIII - XVI centuries BC) and until the period of the Combatant Kingdoms (475-221 BC). Therefore, the exhibition covers the almost 2,000 years of splendor of the Bronze Age and concludes just before its decline in the third century BC. of C. Exhibition held at the MNAC from June 22 to September 12, 2004..