Cattle of China

Entrance of the exhibition, "Cattle of China"

I and my favorite sculpture, " The Silver Inlaid, Ox Shaped, Bronze Lamp”

Modern Ox

The entrance of Nanjing Museum

Cattle of China

On Saturday, March 14th, 2009, I went to an exhibition called, “Cattle of China” at Nanjing Museum. The exhibition was held on the second floor of Nanjing Museum and the museum is located on Zhong Shan Dong Road.
The exhibition was held to celebrate the New Year, 2009, which is the year of cattle in Chinese calendar. I went to the exhibition with my classmates, Cindy, Kassie, Shirley, Peter and Alice, at two o’clock in the noon. I chose this exhibition because the location of the exhibition, Nanjing Museum, was very familiar to me, since I have visited this place for numerous times for other exhibitions in the past. I also chose this exhibition because I like the cattle’s beautiful, large, twinkling eyes and out of my curiosity, I wanted to see how a sculpture and painting of cattle’s eyes would look like

There were many kinds of art works about cattle in the exhibition. There were cross stitch, modern sculpture, traditional sculpture, armors, scrolls and paintings of cows and bulls. Among all the fantastic artworks of cattle, I found “The Silver Inlaid, Ox Shaped, Bronze Lamp” most interesting because of two reasons. Firstly, the shape of this cattle was outstanding than other artworks, because it had a lamp attached on the cow’s back. Secondly, it is because this sculpture is not only a fine piece of an artwork, but it is also functional. The bottom of the lamp can be turned around to change the light direction.

Overall, all the different kinds of artworks, especially the ox lamp, made me feel interested and meaningful of this exhibition. I liked attending this exhibition very much because I could observe all the different kinds and ages of artworks at one place. Thanks to the cultural and artistic significance of the exhibition, “Cattle of China” developed me as a person in two ways. Firstly, I learned more deeply about traditional Chinese culture and now I have more understanding of Chinese culture. Secondly, the artistic significance of the exhibition developed my sensibility and the ability to compare traditional and modern artworks. In general, this excursion was unique, because I learned and developed various concepts that I could not learn in school.