Cincinnati Art Museum
My husband and I went to the Cincinnati Art Museum to see the Terracotta Army: Legacy of the First Emperor of China. We had a full day of the museum set up: visit the exhibit, lunch at the cafe and then listen to the curators discuss the exhibit.
Cincinnati is the only place in the US you can see the army and the only other place outside of China (based on my limited research) is in the UK for all of 2018. The Chinese only allow ten of the warriors out of the country per exhibit. The exhibit was broken into two sides: other items and the warriors. The exhibit has been quite popular -- we overheard from a guard that they had 150 people waiting for the museum to open at 11 AM to see the exhibit, so definitely worth checking on reservations before you arrive.
I really liked the tiger amulet, which was highlighted a few times in the museum materials!
The second room is where the magic was...the ten warriors (well, nine and a horse)!
Each of the terracotta warriors were custom and hand made. When they were originally made, they were painted in vibrant colors.
I was very impressed with the level of detail in each warrior, given there were thousands of these made. For example, check out the detail in the archer's hair and his side. The archaeologists believe that he was once holding a bow and arrow. The intricacies of the hair and the detail is really fantastic.
I had to highlight the horse! The hole in the horse allowed it to not explode in the kiln. It was not quite lifesize, but was fairly accurate given the size of horses in China at the time. Over 650 horses were found in the three pits with the army.
Here are the other figures:
We made a reservation at the Terrace Cafe for lunch. It was my husband's first time and I think he enjoyed it. I do recommend reservations at the cafe is deceptively busy. We get 10% off with our annual membership.
We then went to a members only discussion of the exhibit. The theater was pretty full! The two curators spoke about their pieces of the exhibit. One gave a pretty detailed overview of Chinese history and how China was united under the Qin dynasty, 221-206 BC. The other curator spoke about the yin and yang, which also were also seen in the dragon and phoenix. The talk really highlighted some of the non-warrior pieces within the exhibit.
Times visited: 7
Time in museum: 5 hrs
Overall: B+
Cincinnati is the only place in the US you can see the army and the only other place outside of China (based on my limited research) is in the UK for all of 2018. The Chinese only allow ten of the warriors out of the country per exhibit. The exhibit was broken into two sides: other items and the warriors. The exhibit has been quite popular -- we overheard from a guard that they had 150 people waiting for the museum to open at 11 AM to see the exhibit, so definitely worth checking on reservations before you arrive.
I really liked the tiger amulet, which was highlighted a few times in the museum materials!
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| Deer mat weights with sea shells |
The second room is where the magic was...the ten warriors (well, nine and a horse)!
Each of the terracotta warriors were custom and hand made. When they were originally made, they were painted in vibrant colors.
I was very impressed with the level of detail in each warrior, given there were thousands of these made. For example, check out the detail in the archer's hair and his side. The archaeologists believe that he was once holding a bow and arrow. The intricacies of the hair and the detail is really fantastic.
I had to highlight the horse! The hole in the horse allowed it to not explode in the kiln. It was not quite lifesize, but was fairly accurate given the size of horses in China at the time. Over 650 horses were found in the three pits with the army.
Here are the other figures:
We made a reservation at the Terrace Cafe for lunch. It was my husband's first time and I think he enjoyed it. I do recommend reservations at the cafe is deceptively busy. We get 10% off with our annual membership.
We then went to a members only discussion of the exhibit. The theater was pretty full! The two curators spoke about their pieces of the exhibit. One gave a pretty detailed overview of Chinese history and how China was united under the Qin dynasty, 221-206 BC. The other curator spoke about the yin and yang, which also were also seen in the dragon and phoenix. The talk really highlighted some of the non-warrior pieces within the exhibit.
Times visited: 7
Time in museum: 5 hrs
Overall: B+
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