Nomadic Art of the Eastern Eurasian Steppes: The Eugene V. Thaw and Other New York CollectionsFour thousand years ago a remarkable culture, that of the pastoral nomads, emerged in the Eurasian steppes north of the Great Wall of China, in the vast expanse of grasslands that stretches from Siberia into Central Europe. By the first millennium B.C., material prosperity among the nomads had brought about a flowering of creativity and the evolution of a new artistic vocabulary. The pastoral peoples left no written record, but the artifacts that remain provide a key to understanding their culture and beliefs. Beautifully crafted and highly sophisticated and abstract in design, these objects are visual representations of the natural and supernatural worlds that guided their lives. This publication chronicles the artistic exchange between the pastoral peoples and their settled Chinese neighbors and tells of the legacy of their art, with iconographic analyses and detailed descriptions of nearly two hundred artifacts.-- Metropolitan Museum of Art website. |
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Nomadic Art of the Eastern Eurasian Steppes: The Eugene V. Thaw and Other ... Emma C. Bunker No preview available - 2002 |
Common terms and phrases
2nd century B.C. Altai Mountains animal antlers archaeological artifacts Aruz B.C. Bronze Height B.C. Gilded bronze belt buckle belt hook belt ornaments belt plaques Bunker burial Calon da Collection catalogue century B.C. Bronze century B.C. Gilded Chinese cultural decorated deer depicted displays Dongbei dragon ears eastern Eurasian steppes Ex coll excavated feline Figure finials Gansu Garment plaque gold Guyuan harness ornament head Height 28 hilt horse ibex inlays Inner Mongolia J. J. Lally Kaogu legs lost-wax cast lost-wax process Metropolitan Museum Michael Dunn Miho Museum millennium B.C. mold marks motifs Ningxia nomadic North China Northeast Northwest China openwork Ordos Ordos Desert pastoral Pazyryk piece-mold cast raptors region reverse Scythian Shaanxi shape short sword Siberia similar southeastern southern Siberia southwestern Inner Mongolia Taihang Mountains third century B.C. tiger tomb ungulate vertical loops wax model Wenwu Western width Xianbei Xiongnu York zoomorphic