Art Exhibition of the Horse Year

Horse did not appear in the human being's life until the late Neolithic Age when the human being improved the capability of controlling the nature; our descendants harnessed the running wild horses. From then on, horses have been involved in the human being's life; the society of the human being develops as fast as a horse runs; horse becomes the intimate friend of the human being for the thousands of years. Many aesthetic perception and personified spirits and virtues are found in the shape and habits of a horse. Horse is one of permanent themes of art. When people began to express his feeling for the horse in brush and ink on the paper and silk, paintings on horse and figure appeared. When people began to carve horses out of different materials, the objects in the shape of horse and the motives of horse on objects appeared. In order to rein horses and decorate horses, people produced many harness fittings. The harness fittings with the highest art valuation are those imperial ones with double functions of usage and enjoyment, among which those in the Forbidden City of Qing Dynasty are the best. This exhibition consists of three parts: paintings of horse and figurine, objects in the shape of horse and imperial harness fittings. We would like to present visitors the civilization on the horseback, which has been glorious in the history, as our gift to the first year of horse in the new millennium. (Column compere: Yu Hui)

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