The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Special Exhibitions - China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200


	Special Exhibitions


	China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200–750 AD

		Contents Page

		Fall of an Empire

		The Coming of the Xianbei and Other Nomads

		The Silk Road

		North and South: late 5th–late 6th century

		Reunification: late 6th–8th century

	Work 3 of 12

		Hat ornament with image of a Buddha and disk pendants Sixteen Kingdoms, Northern Yan (407–436) Gold 2 1/4 x 3 3/8 in. (6.8 x 8.4 cm) Excavated from the tomb (dated 415) of Feng Sufu, Beipiao, Liaoning Province, 1965 Liaoning Provincial Museum



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Excavated along with several pieces, including a glass bowl, this gilt bronze hat ornament was found in the tomb of Feng Sufu (d. 415), an official who helped his brother Feng Ba to gain the throne of the Northern Yan in 409. During this short-lived dynasty, the Murong Xianbei again occupied the relatively small area in northeastern China where they had first settled in the third century. The hat ornament illustrates the complex sources that underlay the distinct, and still relatively unstudied, visual culture of this group. The use of such ornaments can be traced back to the Chinese court during the first to the third century. The pendant disks that decorate the front can be found in adornments that were created from the first century B.C. to third century A.D. for nomadic rulers of Afghanistan as well as in early Korean art. The seated Buddha incised on the back, on the other hand, reflects an awareness on the part of the Xianbei of the religion derived from India.

An elegant set of saddle plates provides another example of works made for the Murong Xianbei.

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