The Terracotta Army

The Terracotta Army

The ancient world is a mysterious and interesting place to study the amazing world of artwork and it is this time when the human race began designing the beginning to the world’s greatest architectural monuments, experimenting with different types of art such as frescos. And during this time, one of the greatest examples of funerary art was to be constructed, the Terracotta army.

Discovered by local farmers in the eastern suburbs of the Shaanxi province, China, there stood underground a perfectly sculptured life size army. With over 8,000 soldiers 130 chariots and 670 horses discovered thus far, it culminates to be one of the greatest historical and artist finds of the 20th century (Hirst). The Terracotta army is actually a sculpted army constructed by over 700,000 forced laborers commissioned by the leader of the Qin state in china and later first emperor of china, Qin Shi Huang.

The basic purpose of the immense army is the reason it is considered funerary art and that is because it was built in the foresight of Emperor Qin’s death in hopes that Qin could use the army in the afterlife. Not only were all of these finely produced sculptures discovered but also a stockpiled arsenal of bronze weaponry.

What makes this vast work of art unique compared to other is that every one of the 8,000 soldiers discovered thus far were uniquely crafted. Each soldier has a different expression and face mold. Every soldier is unique from the infantry to the archers. Yet a balance is kept between each and every soldier which is height. The height of the soldier gave the soldiers rank all leading up to Qin himself who of course was the tallest.

In this mammoth work of art there is little movement or flow, the soldiers were sculpted into formation which dictates them to stand in line. The only movement is some of the archers kneeling with their bows. The only pattern that is seen throughout the artificial army is the formation every soldier was constructed into, which of course goes with the underlying theme of ancient military discipline. The material to make such an immense set of sculptures came from a mountain close by, mount Lishan. The only other materials used were clay to sculpt the facial region of each soldier. Surprisingly the sculptures textures were smooth giving rise to the fact that hardly any erosion took place.

The space between each soldier was around two feet or so just as formation is maintained in military standards. About twenty of the sculptures were actually removed for museum purposes and went on an international display throughout museums all over the world. Ticket sales ravaged in the united kingdom rivaling the audiences of the pharaohs of ancient Egypt. The fact that this army was actually constructed for use in the afterlife shows the ancient ways of religion and how many nations believed in filling their burial grounds with item they believed would be of use in the afterlife.

None the less, this immense construction is Amazing and shows the awesome power of the first emperor of unified China. Possibly the greatest form of funerary art, it will always stand to fill us with intrigue to fans of its artistic elements, the historical elements and the all over atmosphere of this masterpiece.