What's in the British Museum?

The first cultural relic museum that really attracted me was the British Museum. At that time, it was my first time to go to London. The British Museum is so famous. Because of its fame, I went to the British Museum for a "visit here". However, the results of the visit shocked me. The massiness of human history and the brilliance of ancient civilization make people feel awe. When I go to London in the future, I will go to the British Museum as long as time permits. I can't remember how many times I have been to the British Museum. It has too many collections. Every time I go, there will be different exhibitions and new gains. The reading room of the British Museum where Marx wrote Das Kapital is also charming. I witnessed the expansion and reconstruction of this museum, and the new museum is more beautiful and comfortable. Being in this museum, you can not only appreciate the feeling brought by the beauty of architecture, but also appreciate the historical thoughts conveyed to you by cultural relics.

The British Museum has a collection of China's ancient paintings, the most precious of which is a history of women. The scroll of Women's History collected by the British Museum has a remarkable legacy of the Six Dynasties, probably from the 5th century to the 7th century. It is a rare early silk painting.

Gu Kaizhi, a native of Wuxi, Jinling, was a painter in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. He was born in an official family and later studied in the Health Association. He is regarded as one of the "four ancestors of painters". He is also good at murals. When he was young, he created the mural "Vimalakīrti" in Jiankang (now Nanjing), which caused a sensation in the painting world. His Illustration of Women's History is based on Zhang Hua's essay on Women's History in the Western Jin Dynasty. According to the original 12, the original painting also has a paragraph 12. But the original has been lost, and there are only nine later generations.

The work depicts the stories of several female models, such as Feng Yuan's body protecting Emperor Xian of Han Dynasty; Another example is Ban Jieyu's refusal to join Emperor Han in order to prevent him from lusting after women and making mistakes in state affairs. The work contains the moral creed that women should abide by at that time, depicts the daily life of upper-class women at that time, and truly and vividly reproduces the gentleness, reserve, elegance and nobility of aristocratic women. The figures in the painting have both form and spirit, and the colors are bright and beautiful. The painter's pen is fine and continuous, such as "spring silkworm spinning silk", which has endless charm. 1860 After "Burning Yuanmingyuan", this treasure was plundered and lost overseas, and now it is collected in the British Museum. There is also a replica of the Song Dynasty in the Palace Museum in Beijing.

In addition to China's ancient paintings, the British Museum also collects the famous Japanese painting Surfing in Kanagawa. Surfing in Kanagawa is the representative work of Japanese ukiyo-e painter Kasai Kitazawa. The painter highlighted the main object of painting-waves, so that huge waves occupied the main picture, forming a shock wave that is often described in mathematics. The fierce waves seem to have swallowed everything. There is a boat struggling in the valley, and the neat efforts of the boatmen also show that people are struggling to compete with the big waves. Interestingly, the outline of Mount Fuji appears in the trough, and the tall Mount Fuji looks fragile in the face of big waves. The picture is a classic Ukiyo-e painting style, but the delicate and concise description is magnificent and colorful, full of philosophy and profound meaning.

Assyria was a powerful country that flourished in the fields of the two river basins in West Asia from the 9th century BC to the 6th century BC. Although the kingdom has not existed for a long time, it has created a highly developed civilization and left an important legacy for world culture. In particular, a large number of sculptures and reliefs unearthed from Assyrian palace sites have added a wonderful stroke to the world art history. Several Assyrian kings are keen on large-scale palace construction, especially the palace built by Sargon II in Dur-Sarukin (now Saubad Hall) is the most spectacular. Lamassu (winged bull) is a statue of Guardian on both sides of the palace gate, which can be found in major museums. Some statues are very huge, up to 5 meters.

/kloc-In the 1950s of 0/9, the British Museum received the first batch of stone carvings from the Middle East, which were excavated from the Nimrud site in the Middle East. One of them, a statue of a cow with the first wing, almost failed to reach its destination because it was ambushed by a group of robbers during the escort, and the bullet marks left on the statue during the exchange of fire between the two sides are still clearly visible today.

The impressive exhibit in the Middle East Pavilion of the British Museum is this pair of giant head-winged bulls. These statues reflect what the makers admire: people's clever mind, the strength and invincibility of cows or lions, and the vast space brought by flying wings. This yearning is common to all cultures, but it is expressed in different ways.

Neridis Monument, also known as the "Sea Fairy Temple" because of its appearance, is a perfect combination of Greek-Persian and Lycian local styles. It was unearthed in the ancient city of Sansos in southwest Turkey. This ancient city is the capital of Lyukia in ancient Greece. It is said that this temple was built for the then ruler Albinas. The British excavated this ancient city in 1848 and brought many cultural relics back to Britain, among which the destroyed Haixian Temple was moved to the British Museum for reconstruction. In this way, Haixian Temple became the best preserved temple in ancient Greece and was exhibited in the British Museum. Haixian Temple was deeply influenced by the Ionian style popular in Greece at that time, so it is speculated that its designers and sculptors were Greeks at that time.

There are three Statues of Goddess among the four pillars on the front of the temple, and there are three Statues of Goddess in the corresponding hall. Although these statues have no heads, their graceful posture and rich clothes have to be amazing. The horizontal ribbon on the platform of the temple is carved with exquisite war pictures and life scenes of Abinas and his entourage dressed in Persian costumes. From this, we can get a glimpse of the splendid sculpture and architectural art of ancient Greece.

Elgin stone carving, the original decorative relief of the Parthenon from Greece, is also on display in the British Museum. These treasures were bought by British diplomat Thomas Elgin in Ottoman Turkey, then sold to the British royal family and finally sold to the British Museum. These sculptures are very beautiful. Think of the once glorious Parthenon. Now there are only a few empty pillars, only an empty shelf. How can we stop the Greeks from beating? The Greeks have been trying to get back the cultural relics, but so far they have not succeeded.

The world-famous Discobolus comes from Italy, not Greece. Originally it was a bronze statue, created by the ancient Greek sculptor Miron in 450 BC. This work is a milestone in the ancient Greek sculpture art, which indicates that the Greek sculpture art has fully matured.

This statue is based on the popular sports activities in ancient Greece, which are still active today. It depicts the most expressive moment of a strong man in the process of throwing discus, and depicts the vitality of the human body in an instant during exercise. The discus and the athlete's head echo each other, forming two commanding heights, one cake and one ball. The right leg touches the ground to stabilize an axis, and the open arms are like a full bow, which drives the body to rotate and increases the association of launching. The athlete's face is a kind of high concentration and calmness, and the calm face is in sharp contrast with the violent momentum. The statue breaks through the limitation of art in time and space, conveys the association of movement in silence, and shows the harmony, bodybuilding and strength of the human body to the fullest. This reflects the qualitative leap of ancient Greek artists in artistic concept, artistic expression and artistic skills. This statue is regarded as "eternity frozen in space" and is still the best symbol of sports.

Unfortunately, the original bronze has been lost, and there are several existing marble replicas of the Roman period, which were collected by the Diocletian Bass Branch of the National Museum of Rome and the European Museum of Bitolli. This statue in the British Museum is a bit special. It is also called "Tonli Discobolus". A replica of this statue was found in Hadrian's Villa near Rome in 179 1 and was bought by Charles Townley, a British antique and art collector, at a public auction in Rome for 400 pounds. In the process of reassembly, the head of the statue was misplaced and was soon discovered. But Tony insisted that it was original, and such a discus thrower was better. 1805, this statue is collected by the British Museum. As for which direction the head should go, people have different opinions.

The earliest exhibits in the British Museum should be ancient Egyptian cultural relics. The picture on the right shows the Egyptian Ani papyrus collected by the British Museum, which is a world-famous book of death.

The book of death is the most famous document handed down from ancient Egypt, and it is a kind of funerary object in ancient Egypt. It's a spell used to help the dead get through the difficulties of the past life and gain eternal life. Usually these spells are written on papyrus with illustrations, read by priests and put in coffins. The mysterious book of death is usually found near the unearthed ancient Egyptian mummies. Ani papyrus, 24 meters long, beautifully made and illustrated with color, illustrates the process of Osiris, the god of death. Part of the picture on the right page depicts Anubis, the wolf-headed man, in charge of the balance. At both ends of the balance are Arnie's heart and the feathers of Matt, the god of truth. The people in white on the left are Mr. and Mrs. Ani, who are anxiously watching the ceremony. There is also a jury at the top of the picture. The sacred calligraphy around describes the merits of the deceased before his death. The whole painting depicts the world where human beings and gods exist, reflecting the devout belief of ancient Egyptians in God and their understanding of death.

This painting represents the characteristics of ancient Egyptian painting art, and most ancient Egyptian paintings depict scenes, or show real life, or show spiritual society. In the form of expression, things are depicted with straight and concise lines, and characters are simplified as symbols as the carrier of life. The picture is rich in color, clear in outline, old-fashioned in action and plain in expression, but very concise and vivid. For the ancient Egyptians, a two-dimensional image would be transformed into a three-dimensional object by magic, so the prototype should be "resurrected" as perfectly as possible on papyrus paper used to accompany the dead into the afterlife. The ancient Egyptians also decided the size of things in paintings according to their status in their minds. For example, in this work, Anubis and Anne are painted higher than others because of their important position.

The book of death is very rich in content. At the beginning of its discovery, it was considered as the Bible of Egypt. Later, people found it very personalized, but it is still the best document to study ancient Egypt. The British Museum also has a collection of The Book of Death by the scribe Hunev.

The collections in the British Museum are all treasures, but one exhibit is of great significance, and that is the Rosetta Stone. This stone was discovered by a French captain in Rosetta, Egypt on 1799, and was immediately sent to the Egyptian Institute established by Napoleon in Cairo. 180 1 After Napoleon was defeated by the British in, this precious stone was captured by the British as a trophy and then shipped to France. /kloc-arrived in England in 0/802 and presented it to the British Museum in the name of the king. After that, except for a short trip to escape the war during World War I, it stayed in the museum and was examined by visitors with amazing eyes.

Rosetta Stone is a marble slab, which was made in BC 196. Initially, it was a stone tablet engraved with letters from King Ptolemy V of Egypt. The top of the stone tablet is engraved with ancient Egyptian sacred words, the middle is ancient Egyptian secular words, and the following is Greek words engraved with the same content. This is the key to unlock the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt, and therefore it has become the stone of the town hall of the British Museum. On the cultural relics of ancient Egypt, people found sacred words everywhere. It is because of this stone tablet that people can read these sacred words, which shows the importance of this stone tablet.

The reason why the British Museum has so many important cultural relics from all over the world is closely related to the British colonial history. In other words, most of the cultural relics were stolen by them in the 18 and 19 centuries, and the main victims were Greeks, Egyptians and China. We are victims and have painful memories. The British Museum has more than 20,000 pieces of ancient China cultural relics, including Dunhuang cultural relics, Oracle Bone Inscriptions, ancient paintings and ancient porcelain.

Of course, Britain has also paid a huge price for protecting these cultural relics-the British Museum bears huge maintenance, security, research and management costs every year. The British Museum is now open for free. Today, when the economy is going from bad to worse, the great pressure of funds comes from all directions. However, it is still in a bleak business and insists on free, except that there is a big donation jar in the entrance hall. It seems that a curator of the British Museum said that these cultural relics belong to all mankind, and they are only guardians, so there is no reason to charge. In other words, in recent years, Greece, Egypt and China are all trying to get back precious cultural relics, but this "guardian" still refuses to let go.

The British Museum is a comprehensive museum, which contains some precious cultural relics left over from the history of human development, most of which are exquisite works of art ... Human civilization is inherited, and art has magic beyond time and space. We are trying to understand our ancestors through the articles they left to preserve their time information in the form of art. Humans don't know their own history, just like a person who has lost his memory. Every antique contains some legendary stories and many legends that we don't know. Those respectable cultural relics workers spent their whole lives trying to dig out this information from the objects left over from history.

The picture and text are taken from jinliang, the author of Collection of Museum Art Treasures.