Pinacotheque of
Paris presents the mythical army of terracotta discovered in 1974.
The land of Shaanxi has long concealed a fabulous secret. The legend
had survived for centuries that Qin Shihuangdi, the first emperor of
China, had built his final resting place in this region of China,
approximately 35 kilometers from the city of Xi'an. Better still than a
grave, he is is based in a real palace 210 Before Christ. A mythical
mound that had never been searched. he had raised an army to stand
guard at his residence eternal. The archaeologist Victor Segalen,
arrived at the site in 1914, had questioned what might reveal these
fields since 2000 years back. " And he said, it seems, among the
peasants of the area that the soil contained clay deities. The truth
should come out of a well, one of the region's people digging near the
tomb of the emperor in March 1974 when they began on the day the first
signs of battalions who slept there. The Pinacoteca de Paris will host
a score of some 7000 soldiers who were trained this terracotta army of
Qin Shihuangdi and allow the public to discover, or rediscover, one of
the greatest archaeological discoveries of the past century. From
400000 to 500000 people are expected to take this opportunity to
approach a myth. Since the revelation of its existence, this cohort of
warriors has continued to fascinate. Periodically, small squads roam
the world and its museums. Since 1976, two soldiers and a horse went on
mission to Japan. More recently, in the winter of 2000-2001, some of
these soldiers were in the past faction in the exhibition dedicated to
the glory of the emperors at the Petit Palais in Paris, which had
attracted 211378 visitors in 77 days. In the summer months, another
event at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco attracted more than 50000 people.
As for the British Museum, by devoting the last few months exposure to
the first emperor, he drew 850619 visitors. On the same site of the
discovery, it is not less than 2 million visitors who flock every year,
Chinese for more than 80% of them. "It does not come back from there
without being in shock," says Marc Restellini, director of the Picture
Gallery. We are suprised by the vision of these columns immobile in
their trenches land as much as in the poignant jumble of soldiers who
have not yet been restored. In China, the multitude
of warriors is very impressive. Until Sept. 14, at the
Pinacoteca de Paris, visitors can be measured closely with a small
delegation of proud soldiers. In a darkness recalled that the
atmosphere of Chinese tanks, a senior officer kneeling archers or
infantrymen will surround visitor who can
admire their strong constitution they can grow up to 1.90 m
and enjoy their serene air, the limit of melancholy. These warlords
will also be accompanied by an acrobat and a musician. The latest
excavation of archaeological site have indeed revealed that the
terracotta escort of Qin Shihuangdi was not formed as soldiers, but
also of artists.
It is true that the emperor wanted to be together for eternity "with a
representation of the world in which he lived," says Alain Thote,
historian and archaeologist specialist in
préimpériale China, which provides the Commission
with this exhibition Lothar von Falkenhausen, professor at the
University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). The soldiers,
as well as a hundred bronze vases, coins or objects of jade, most of
them from the Museum of Art and History of Shaanxi Province, told the
power and beauty of the world This sovereign, the first to have done
so, in 221 BC -. C, the unity of China. The Pinacotheque said that Qin
Shihuangdi had a vast territory. His burial was a reflection.