Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 10 : Record of press coverage, March 1982 - May 1984

,• 'I'he Leader 1 May 1963 one of rile remarkable Chinese Q11ee11s/a11d Arr Gallery ntombed Warriors unique exhibition a Visitors to the Queensland Art Gallery will be able to sample one of the most astonishing discoveries of the century when The Entombed Warriors goes on display this month. The di,covery was made by accident. not by !rained ar· chaeologiSlS, bul by simple farmers near 1he cily of X1an in Shaanxi province of norlh· weslern China in I974. The villagers were drilling for W,ller in lhC fields when !hey suddenly realised lhal !hey had pc11c1ra1ed into an crnaordinary undergrou nd 1unncl. where !hey found , cvcral large pollery fragmenl s. Exlensive excava1ions by archaeologisls have since un· covered more lhan 7000 ler· racona figures in 1hrce separate pils - an ancienl Chinese Emperor's enlire regi· menl of life-size pollery soldiers. armed and ready for ballle. complele wilh horses and weapons and all lhc im· plemenl5 of war. The burial chambers were commissioned, for his own lomb. by 1hc firs! Emperor of China Qin Shihuang. who ruled from 210 lo 200 BC. Qin Shihuang was rc,pomi ble for swndardising China ·, written language. la,\,'~- cur rcncy and weigh!, and measures and he unificu 1hc counlry' warring State, - an achicvcmcm ,ymboliscd b) his joining lhc hilhcno div1d cd pans of lhe Grcal Wa ll of China. Fmpcror Shihuang·s grcal power rcsled securely in lhc Slrcnglh and efficiency of hi, army. It wa, obviou, ly a sup· port he wanled lo be able lll rely on ju,1 as CC1nfidclll ii' in lhe af1er-lifc. · The roynl u11dergro11ml ar· my is remarkable nol imply for lhe vaslness of 1he Emperor's projecl. bul because of the ·upcrb cra ft sman hip of lhe figures and fi neness of de1ail in !heir ex ccu1io11 . Nowhere is lhere a ,uggcs• 1io1'. ~( nw1s rcprcx.h1c1io11 of a . ,wndard pa11ern. On the con lrar). each 1~ece i, endo\\ ed Wllh ils 0\\ n 11n1t111el) in clivid11al pcrsonalil)'. so 1hal lhe sculpt11rcs show soldier, wilh al leas! 100 differenl e, prcssions. The exhihilion has been of• fe rcd lo .-\us1ralia b1 China 10 com111c111ora1e !he · IOlh an· nivcrsary of lhe re· es1ahlish111c111 of diploma11c rcla1iu11s bc1wce11 the 1wo co11mrics. It's ll1c largest n hihition of the 11ur~, 10 l>r ,ccn ou1,ide China Tlie piece, ,elcl't,·d for the •\11st ralian tour 111cl11de chario1and cav:.iln hnr,I.', and ,evcn differenl · 1) J>r' of lwman figure - a ,1mh11g 111 fan1ryman. ~11ecl111g cro,sbo 1•111:111 and archer. ar 111011red aml 1111arm,n1red ,oldicr,. a ea vain 1M11 and a commander · upplc111c111ar) 111:ller,111' t\J I><: shuwn indudc \llllle of tile rcn l wcupon, !,pear,. s1111rd, and cro,show,1 which 11erc buried with 1he figures aml which. 1ic111g made of an allO) of IJ metal . arc nncorrodcd despilc being hurie I for ~000 year, n,,, /;'1110111h,•d II urritir, will be 011 di1/1lay from 1wx1 Wednesday.~ a) ~. lo June S