Chinese Art

Chinese art spans more than three thousand years, from the ritual bronzes of the Shang and Zhou dynasties to the porcelain and painting of the Qing court. Bronze vessels and jades served ancestors and rulers, and tomb figures of the Han and Tang furnished the afterlife. Later, scholar-officials made ink painting and calligraphy the most admired arts, prizing personal expression and dialogue with past masters, while the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen set a standard for porcelain the whole world tried to copy.