Asian Bronze

A majestic exhibition at the national museum of the Netherlands offers a refreshing take on ancient Asian sculptures spanning four millennia

Bodhisattva, China, Ming dynasty, Yongle period, 1403-1424. Musée Cernuschi, Paris.

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
27 September 2024 – 12 January 2025

by ALLIE BISWAS

Bronze might usually carry third-best status but in this exhibition at the Rijksmuseum it effortlessly takes first place. The 75 objects on display are masterpieces spanning 4,000 years – prehistoric artefacts from China, India and Japan, among other countries, many borrowed, and several shown in Europe for the first time.

Think of any type of primordial sculpture, especially originating from these regions, and religion usually isn’t too far behind: as one would expect, the exhibition is populated with statues of distinguished deities including an intricate gilt model of the three-faced, six-armed Akshobhyavajra, a monumental Shiva depicted gracefully as a dancer and an enormous Amida Buddha whose impenetrable weight grounds his crossed knees to the floor. What is made clear from the start, though, is that the focus here is on artistry, specifically the material itself, rather than ethnography. So, while one of the galleries may be themed around heaven and earth, the sculptures of gods that inhabit that room are more an opportunity for the curators to make a case for the status attributed to bronze across the continent (a substance that could be used to create religious iconography) rather than an exercise in determining the function of these statues. As well as this, the diverse figures selected, ranging from a gleaming Chinese bodhisattva to a muted Nepalese Sitatara, elucidate how each region handled bronze in their own way, resulting in distinct, dissimilar aesthetics.

Guhyasamaja Akshobhya, Tibet, 15th century. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

The exhibition opens with a flattened figure made in the Ganges Valley in India, dating from 3,500 years ago. The streamlined miniature form stands by itself on the edge of a terracotta-hued table that extends across the entire room (the first of many eye-catching scenes designed by Aldo Bakker Studio). Boasting an icy green surface, the object confirms bronze’s standing as a human invention; a man-made entity created by combining copper and tin (copper ore carries a green patina). In the next room, a tiny sculpture of a girl, borrowed from the National Museum of Pakistan, is one of the first instances of bronze being used to create human likeness: an object that is purely sculpture. It is also the oldest object in the exhibition.

Shiva Nataraja, India, c1100-1200. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (On loan from the Royal Asian Art Society in The Netherlands).

Bronze casting developed across Asia centuries before it became used in Europe as an art-making medium. This is probably because Asia was the largest repository for tin, with a tin belt extending from Burma and Thailand to Peninsular Malaysia and the so-called Indonesian Tin Islands. As the alloy gained traction, its prevalence and stature became established, crossing over from the realm of the gods into daily life. One of the galleries is devoted to fragrance: assorted incense burners take the shape of mountains, birds and lotus leaves, and also, unexpectedly, a lobster. In another room, numerous mirrors are displayed in a cabinet. Their now-dull circular surfaces were once reflective, thanks to bronze that had been continuously polished until it shone. The backs and borders of these objects are inscribed with zodiac signs, sea waves and auspicious beasts, and the final mirror in the sequence was made in 2024 by a craftsperson in Aranmula, India, trained in the ancient technique.

Leaving this room, one walks through an ornate 19th-century Indian temple archway from Tamil Nadu (delivered to the exhibition from its present-day home of Los Angeles), which would have been illuminated by oil lamps that, regrettably, are left unlit here.

Installation of Asian Bronze. Photo: Rijksmuseum/Erik and Petra Hesmerg.

In one of the final galleries, themed around bronze as a conduit for sound, nine eighth-century Chinese bells are hung in a row from a timber frame in order of size. Humming underneath them triggers their varying melodies, which are the result of the maker giving each object a slightly different internal curve. It is a reminder of the ingenuity of the creators in the exhibition who mastered a substance that first had to be configured and was hardly easy to control, elevating it to something that was both revered and familiar in so many contexts. It is also a statement about the beauty of bronze itself; a new, and welcome, perspective on this ancient material.

Horse and servant China, Eastern Han dynasty, 2nd - 3rd century. Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Cologne.