Ellen and I and our friends saw the Terra Cotta Warrior exhibit at the asian museum in San Francisco last weekend. Our friend’s IM’d their son, “we’re seeing the warriors @ San Francisco this weekend”. He IM’d back, “enjoy the game”: wrong warriors.
It amazes me that one human being can command so much of so many other human beings. Estimates of the number of warrior statues discovered in Xian run between 1500 uncovered “thus far” to 20,000. How one emperor could commission or force artisans to build such a huge tribute to himself escapes me. He (chauvanistic society this) would have to convince the masses that it is in their own best interests to create such a tribute, or to guarantee opulance for future generations, or well just use slave labor…. ah, politicts and religion…
Skipping from the political to the artistic/historical, these statues and baubles are simply amazing. There were a handful of statues on display at the museum. Far fewer than I expected, but amazing to see any at all. Be forwarned, there are three exhibit rooms and the best is room #1. Do not move to room #2 thinking it will be better than #1. You will be disappointed.
Here are a few photos from the exhibit. I’ve added China, the Great Wall and the Terra Cotta Warriors to my list of places to visit after retirement!
These shots were taken in extremely difficult lighting: low light with flood lighting from above and very high contrast between shadows and highlight. Perfect for high dynamic range photography… but I switched to HDR only toward the end of our stay in exhibit #1.
Non HDR photos:
This armor was amazing in its intracacy.
High Dynamic Range photos
