A Look into the Largest Collection of Chinese Artifacts Outside of China

By Janet Fu, S5 Editor

The Royal Ontario Museum recently announced a new addition to their online museum. In a typical year, the Gallery of Chinese Architecture draws in hundreds of visitors and is well known for containing over 200 artifacts including statuary pieces, architectural features, and embellishments. Volunteer and art enthusiast Marion Ho stated her excitement at the opening of the online museum: “I have never seen such a rich, exquisite, collection of porcelain, jades, and murals.”

For millennia, Chinese architects have integrated the technique feng shui (Chinese geomancy) with the designs of both Yin-houses (for the dead) and Yang houses (for the living). “Chinese architecture is as ancient and rich as the culture itself,” said Stephen Field, a professor of Chinese history. “The two were always intertwined.”

Today, the ROM exhibits their Chinese artifacts to represent said culture. Rather than featuring photographs providing context for buildings and such, artisans were brought in from the National Museum of Chinese Architecture in Beijing to recreate many artifacts. Alongside the works of ancient sculpturists is a life-sized imitation of a section of a Chinese Imperial Palace. The model, a show-stopping 14-foot piece with swooping glazed roof tiles and ornate blue rims, gives the visitors a full immersive architectural experience.

A recreation of the Chinese Imperial Palace, by the National Museum of Chinese Architecture.

GALLERY OF CHINESE ARCHITECTURE | THE ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM

Much like how pyramids were built for Egyptian Pharaohs, Imperial buildings were built as tombs for the Emperors of China. Each feature of a traditional imperial building was carefully planned out and customized to its resident emperor, from the colour of the roof tiles to the designs of supporting beams and columns. Because of this, the recreation of the building, as Dr. Shen, lead curator of the exhibition, pointed out, required extreme attention to detail. A step into the ornate building reveals said detail, with no area of the structure left bare, not even the elaborately painted underside of the roof.

Across and adjacent from the imperial palace, you can see more artifacts representing Chinese culture between 300 BC and 1900 AD. This section of the gallery includes a gigantic reproduction of an emperor’s travelling carriage fashioned from wood by several Canadian artisans. Next to it is a lengthy yellow display case, strategically painted to match the colour of Chinese royalty, housing bronze artifacts as a reference to spoils collected in war as well as those who lost their lives fighting for their emperor. Even further along are statues of the noblemen and war heroes, again both a reference to Yin and Yang and a powerful statement to Chinese life and culture.

A cast-bronze dagger-axe (Ge) used in the Western Zhou Dynasty

THE DR. JAMES M. MENZIES COLLECTION | THE ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM

At the heart of the Gallery of Chinese Architecture is the Court of the Forbidden City, which holds stunning textiles and exquisite imperial furnishings. The curator writes that the exhibition “allows Canadians to see, for the first time, the finest objects hidden from view in the Forbidden City.” The room is filled with artwork that only the imperial family and the palace staff had viewing access to. Before arriving at the ROM, these works of art had never been seen by the public eye outside of the forbidden city in China. Close examination of the artifacts reveals the master of artistry and detail that the palace artists used for each piece. Even something as simple as the head of a doorknob needed to be a work of art.

An ornate carving of a dragon’s head

COURT OF THE FORBIDDEN CITY | THE ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM

For now, many artifacts from the Gallery of Chinese Architecture are available in the ROM’s online collections for viewing pleasure. Even though no longer available in person, the experience still is immersive, revealing the sumptuous world of imperial China.