BLOCKBUSTERS: Real and Imagined

Blockbuster exhibitions intend two things. They want to attract large audiences who don’t usually go to museums while retaining their established constituency. Thus, such spectaculars must offer both entertainment and depth. Happily, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s presentation of “Eternal China: Splendors From the First Dynasties” has all the right credentials.

It happens to ride in on the media coattails of current interest in China. President Clinton’s recent visit got the grown-ups’ attention. Disney’s animated extravaganza “Mulan” is turning the kids into Sinophiles, making the exhibition something for the whole family.

The show’s stars are a dozen life-size figures from Qin’s tomb, the most mind-boggling and widely publicized archeological finds within living memory. Press material is at pains to point out that this is the largest number of Qin figures yet shown in the U.S.

The Emperor Qin Shihuangdi (259-210 BC) unified the vast nation, built the Great Wall and burned most of the books. His burial was discovered in 1974 by farmers digging a well in Central China’s Shaanxi Province. Excavation eventually unearthed a terra cotta army of 8,000 soldiers, 600 horses and 100 chariots. Archeologists estimate that creating the seven square miles of Qin’s tomb took about 35 years and required the labor of some 700,000 workers.

All that certainly attests to the power and magnificence of the Qin and subsequent Han dynasties. Enduring for about four-and-a-half centuries, from 221 BC to AD 220, the period forms the chronological envelope for the show’s 115 sculptural objects. Like the Qin material, most pieces are either tomb furniture or objects cherished by the deceased.

Rather curiously, the exhibition is presented in reverse chronological order. There are a couple of possible reasons for this. The later Han material, which viewers encounter first, is less visually prepossessing than the Qin. On the other hand, the exhibition ends with an impressive pair of bronze chariots, each fully caparisoned right down to four pony-size horses. The problem is these last works are reproductions. There’s nothing wrong with this. They’re clearly labeled as such, but maybe the organizers thought twice about leading off with inauthentic work.

Fortunately the nature of “Eternal China” is such that once such bits of stagecraft are noted, viewers can just forget them.

The exhibition is, most importantly, an extraordinary, moving encounter. Numerical and chronological compression concentrates on representations of people and animals revealing an earthy, humanistic art rarely associated with great empires.

Examples from the pre-dynastic Warring States period (383-221 BC) meld realism with decorative stylization. A small mythical creature in gold combines elegance and ferocity in a fashion reminiscent of the awesome winged bulls of Assyria.

By the time of Qin’s terra cotta army, an artistic transformation is in place. Given their numbers, one expects these figures to be stiff, lifeless and show traces of mass production. There is a bit of this in two chariot soldiers. Their poses, costumes and heads are virtually identical. Then you notice they’re mirror images of each other. That means somebody went to considerable trouble to show that although these troopers have the same function, they’re individuals.

The warriors become ever-more eloquent. Somehow you know this guy is an officer but of a lower rank. A cavalryman and his horse stand side by side. He’s gentle, subservient, disciplined and ruthless. His mount is tough, fierce and enduring.

The group, as a kind of chorus, speaks of people of varying temperaments entirely dedicated to the singular purpose of serving the emperor. Leaving the gallery, there’s an inclination to glance back quickly. You’re pretty sure these guys only stand still when someone’s looking.

Encountering art with this kind of lifelike aura is rare. Contemporary American sculptor George Segal sometimes achieves it in his body-cast sculpture. But the Chinese work is unique in so consistently imbuing such realistic art with the kind of soul usually found in work by so-called primitive peoples.

One reaches for a quasi-rational explanation. I think it has something to do with a knack for hitting just the right balance of representation and stylization.

A wonderful gilded bronze horse from the Western Han dynasty illustrates the point. It appears anatomically correct right down to the genitals, but suppression of irrelevant detail makes it appear as a vivid distillation of the equine spirit. Generally representations of animals are more emotive than those of humans, who tend to be touchingly self-effacing when they’re not caught laughing. Even an earthenware model of a house has character.

Simply put, “Eternal China” offers vivid testament to the endurance, devotion and profundity of a great people.

The traveling exhibition was cooperatively organized by the Administrative Bureau of Museums and Archeological Data of Shaanxi Province, People’s Republic of China and the Art Institute of Dayton, Ohio. Its curator, Li Jian, arranged the exhibition and edited the 225-page catalog. Locally, the exhibition was overseen by Santa Barbara Museum of Art curator Susan Tai.

* “Eternal China: Splendors From the First Dynasties,” Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1130 State St., Santa Barbara; through Oct. 18, Tuesdays-Sundays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m; Fridays, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Tickets available at the museum or through Ticketmaster: adults, $10; seniors, $8; ages 6-17, $6; under 6 free. (805) 963-4364.