Chao News Client Editor Yu Ximeng
May 18 is International Museum Day, which takes stock of the most precious and representative exhibits of the world's major museums, which are not only of great value in the field of art and history, but also an important symbol of the museum's attraction to visitors. These exhibits are the hallmarks of their respective museums because of their unique value and significance in art, history or culture. They have often undergone a long period of historical precipitation, condensed the essence of human civilization, and become an important window for people to explore and understand the world.
1. The Palace Museum in Beijing
The Palace Museum, Beijing Source: Visual China
Founded in 1925, the Palace Museum in Beijing is a comprehensive museum in China established on the basis of the imperial palaces of the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty and their collections, and is also the largest museum of ancient culture and art in China. "Qingming Riverside Map", "Pingfu Post" of Lu Ji of the Western Jin Dynasty, carved lacquer moire plate, green jade cloud dragon pattern furnace, cloisonné enamel entwined branch lotus pattern elephant ear furnace, the treasure of weaving and embroidery Shen Zifan silk "Plum Magpie Map" and so on are the treasures of the Palace Museum in Beijing. The Palace Museum, along with the Hermitage Museum in Russia, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the United States, the Louvre Museum in France, and the British Museum in the United Kingdom, is known as one of the five largest museums in the world.
"Qingming Riverside Picture" volume Source: The Palace Museum
The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, Northern Song Dynasty, by Zhang Zeduan, on silk, light color, 24.8 cm long, 528 cm wide.
"Qingming Riverside Map" depicts the bustling and lively scene inside and outside the Dongjiaozi Gate of Bianjing (now Kaifeng, Henan), the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty and on both sides of the Bianhe River during the Qingming Dynasty.
There are more than 500 characters in the picture, interspersed with various plots, organized in an orderly manner, and at the same time interesting.
Cloisonné enamel entwined lotus pattern elephant ear furnace Source: Palace Museum
Cloisonné enamel entwined branch lotus pattern elephant ear furnace, late Yuan and early Ming Dynasty, 13.9 cm high, 16 cm caliber, 13.5 cm foot diameter.
The enamel of this ware is shiny, some of it is glass-like translucent, and the enamel color is harmonious, rich and elegant, and it is a high-level work of the Yuan Dynasty. Only its copper gall, elephant ears and ring feet are matched.
2. The British Museum, London
British museum
The British Museum is a comprehensive museum located in London, England, and one of the largest and most famous museums in the world, founded in 1753. The museum has a collection of more than 8 million pieces and was officially opened to the public on January 15, 1759.
Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta Stone, a granodiorite stele made in 196 B.C., was originally a stone tablet engraved with the edict of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Ptolemy V (Ptolemy V).
However, because the stele is inscribed with three different languages of the same passage, modern archaeologists have the opportunity to decipher the meaning and structure of the Egyptian hieroglyphs that have been handed down for more than 1,000 years after comparing the contents of each language version, and it has become an important milestone in the study of ancient Egyptian history today.
Louis chess
The Louis chess consists of 82 beautifully carved pieces, probably from 12th-century Norway, each of which is a static work of art.
3. The Louvre Museum, France
Louvre Museum, France Source: Visual China
The Louvre was built at the end of the 12th century and has been expanded and rebuilt for more than 800 years. Its overall architecture is U-shaped, with the old part built in the time of Louis XIV and the new part built in the Napoleonic era. The Louvre is also the oldest royal palace in French history. King François I of France had purchased a large number of works of art from Italy, including the oil painting Mona Lisa. By the time of Louis XIV, it had collected about 2,000 paintings, more than 150 sculptures, and more than 700 drawings. During the French Revolution, the republican government decided to open it to the public as a museum, naming it the "Musée Centrale des Beaux-Arts". Over the next 100 years, the Louvre's collection has expanded to include statues of Venus, known as the "Three Treasures of the World", oil paintings of the Mona Lisa and stone sculptures of the goddess of victory, as well as a large number of Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Oriental antiques, as well as ancient relics from France and Italy. The transparent pyramid building of the central square, designed by Chinese-American designer I.M. Pei, has become one of the landmark buildings of the Louvre.
"Mona Lisa" source: Visual China
Born in Italy, the painter Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance painter, natural scientist and engineer, known as the "Three Masters of the Renaissance" along with Michelangelo and Raphael.
The Mona Lisa looks at the viewer with her legendary smile, and behind her there is a beautiful natural landscape that stretches into the distance. Leonardo da Vinci captured the moment when the Mona Lisa turns to the viewer, and it is this natural posture that gives the painting a sense of life. In addition to the expressiveness of the figures, da Vinci also used a masterful painting technique called "smudging", in which thin layers of paint are layered on top of each other to create a softened and hazy silhouette that creates such an aesthetic and captivating effect.
"Venus with a Broken Arm" Source: Visual China
Venus, the embodiment of love and beauty in Greek mythology, is one of the favorite subjects of Western artists. The sculpture is made of two marble blocks, and the artist has skillfully arranged the joints at the junction between the half-naked upper body and the shirt. The proportions of the sculpture conform to the "golden section" rule, which embodies the ideal of harmony and perfection of classical art, and is a representative sculpture of the Hellenistic period.
4. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, located next to Central Park in New York City, USA, has a collection of more than two million works of art, and the entire museum is divided into 19 sections. The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 by a group of bankers and artists. They expect museums to educate American citizens about art and art education. The collection includes many outstanding works of classical art, ancient Egyptian art, paintings by almost all European masters, and a large number of American visual and modern artworks.
The museum also houses a large collection of African, Asian, Oceanian, Byzantine and Islamic art, as well as a collection of world musical instruments, costumes, ornaments, weapons and armor. Here you can see different buildings ranging from Romanesque to modern American styles.
"Surfing in Kanagawa" Source: Visual China
Measuring 25.7 centimeters high and 37.9 centimeters wide, the work depicts the raging waves of the waters near Kanagawa, in which three boats are forging ahead, and the heroic boatmen are engaged in a thrilling and fierce struggle with nature in order to survive, expressing the fearless spirit of people who brave the wind and waves and forge ahead. It is known as the pinnacle of ukiyo-e and a treasure of Japanese art.
V. V. Vatican Museums
Vatican Museums
The Vatican Museums' collections are the result of centuries of collection and accumulation by the Roman Catholic Church. In the 16th century, Pope Julius II created the museum. While visiting the Vatican Museums, visitors will pass by the Sistine Chapel and Raphael's Rooms, which were decorated by Raphael. Michelangelo's pinnacle paintings, Genesis and The Last Judgment, are the jewels of the museum.
The Last Judgment
The Last Judgment is a fresco painted by Michelangelo, the master of the Italian Renaissance, commissioned by Pope Paul III from 1534 to 1541 for the Sistine Catholic Church, which occupies the entire wall behind the altar of the Sistine Catholic Church, depicting more than 400 figures. They are based on real and historical figures, respectively. This work is the essence of Michelangelo's second half of his life, and it is also the pinnacle of human artistic creation, and some even consider it to be the entire glory of Italian literary and artistic history.
6. The Hermitage Museum, Russia
Hermitage Museum, Russia
The Hermitage Museum, located on the Neva River in St. Petersburg, Russia, was founded in 1764 by Russian Empress Catherine II and opened in 1852. The "Winter Palace", which is more familiar to Chinese people, is one of its main buildings. There are a total of 1,000 exhibition halls, 350 of which are open to the public. Over a period of about 250 years, the museum has collected nearly 3 million treasures of world culture and art, from the Stone Age to the present day.
"Our Lady of Leda" Source: Visual China
The Virgin Leda is an oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci around 1490. The Virgin Mary in the painting is nursing for Jesus. Leonardo da Vinci deliberately downplayed the religious overtones of the paintings and gave the Virgin a radiant humanity.
7. Kyoto National Museum, Japan
Kyoto National Museum, Japan Source: Visual China
The Kyoto National Museum is located in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. In the early years of the Meiji era, in order to protect the artifacts of the shrines and temples from destruction, in 1889, the then Ministry of Imperial Household Affairs decided to establish a museum in Kyoto, which was completed and opened in 1897. The Kyoto National Museum's red bricks and white columns, as well as the roof, are a unique blend of Buddhism and Japanese-style architecture.
Statue of the Bodhisattva
This painting has bright and vivid colors and gold leaf remaining, and it is a masterpiece of Heian Dynasty Buddhist painting. The white and shiny flesh is painted with light red shadows, and the details are also very ingenious. The bodhisattva has a flower treasure lid on his head, and large flowers fall beautifully, giving the picture a serene movement.
8. National Archaeological Museum of Athens
National Archaeological Museum of Athens Source: Visual China
The National Archaeological Museum of Athens is the largest museum in Greece, with more than 11,000 exhibits in an 8,000-square-meter building. Originally built to preserve artifacts excavated around Athens in the 19th century, it has been enriched with artifacts from all over Greece to provide a comprehensive display of ancient Greek culture. The collection of gold masks of Agamanon and bronze sculptures represented by Poseidon are worth seeing.
Agamemnon's Mask Source: Visual China
Agamemnon's mask, discovered by Heinrich Schliemann during an archaeological discovery of the Mycenaean civilization in 1876, is made of gold. Height 26 cm. The production year is between 1550 and 1500 BC.
9. Constantine Art Museum, Turkey
Museum of Fine Arts, Constantine, Turkey
The Constantine Art Museum (Hagia Sophia) in Turkey, famous for its massive dome, is an example of Byzantine architecture that "changed the history of architecture". The interior of the church concentrates on the recent cultural history and artistic achievements, and is representative of the region.
Three holy icons mosaic
The Three Icons Mosaic is widely regarded as the finest mosaic of Hagia Sophia because of its soft faces, kind expressions and style. The style of the mosaic is similar to that of Italian painters from the 13th to the early 14th centuries, and the lower half of the mosaic is badly degraded, presumably because the mosaic has been washed by rain near the windows. This mosaic is considered the beginning of the revival of Byzantine pictorial art.
10. National Museum of Egypt
Exhibition Hall of the National Museum of Egypt Source: Visual China
The National Museum of Egypt is located near Tahrir Square in Cairo, the capital of Egypt, and has a collection of more than 300,000 cultural relics, of which only 63,000 are on display, making it a treasure trove of relics of ancient Egyptian civilization with a long history of more than 3,000 years. Because this museum is mainly a collection of artifacts from the Pharaonic period, the Egyptians are used to calling it the "Pharaonic Museum".
Tutankhamun's Golden Mask
The golden mask of Tutankhamun is a world-class "priceless treasure" found in the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun in Egypt.
(According to the official website of the Palace Museum, CCTV News, etc.)