The Miho Museum is fortunate to have in its collection objects that span the ancient cultures of Egypt, the Near East, South and Central Asia, China, Greece and Rome, and Islam. These objects represent the finest flowering of these great civilizations. The broad range of cultures represented by the Miho Museum is paralleled by the breadth of human history that they encompass. The earliest works, such as the Bactrian Cylindrical Cup with Agricultural and Ceremonial Scenes date from the Third-millennium BC. The latest, the Persian Medallion and Animal Carpet was woven at the turn of the 17th century AD

  When first entering the galleries of the South Wing, after the initial amazement of coming face to face with objects very alien to modern understanding has faded, one might begin to discern a vivid impression of the eternal present hidden under centuries of human cultures.

  One should remember that this art was not the product of an individual artist living in one generation, but the fruit of a great harvest of many generations of craftsmen who attempted to shape a vision of the eternal and wondrous. These nameless craftsmen by drawing on a lineage of scores of artists who preceded them were able to endow these works with the power to manifest in the modern viewer the joy that blesses the human heart's pursuit of the timeless. This quest for a form to express the sacred was so strong that it stimulated both trade and cultural expansion. Silver from West Asia and the lapis lazuli of Central Asia find their place in the Egyptian Cult Figure of a Falcon-headed Deity and Egyptian motifs find there way to the Torque with a pectoral depicting battle from Iran. There are artifacts in the South Wing that were created by such a high level of technical sophistication that they cannot be duplicated today. And at the heart of this advanced technology, at the core of ancient commerce and the cross-fertilization of civilization, is the simple desire to make concrete that which cannot be reached by reason alone.

  The Cylindrical Cup with Agricultural and Ceremonial Scenes was crafted at a pivotal time in the story of mankind. Large urban centers were beginning to flourish and recorded history had begun. In the wake of this great social evolution came abundance and an exuberance that transcended the elemental struggle to survive. Mankind was free to articulate his relationship with the intangible and sacred. On the lower face of this Bactrian cup laborers are seen toiling in a field, while above them are celebrants at a ceremonial banquet. Although the juxtaposition of these two scenes can be variously interpreted, what better image could there be of the great change that had then taken place in the human spirit?

  The Miho Museum is a celebration of mankind's ability to surpass physical survival and strive for the infinite. The collection is a also a celebration of mankind's capacity to transcend the perspectives of one civilization and forge something vibrant and new through the fusion of distinct cultural influences. This is evident in the works from the great empires of China, Persia, and Rome. The Torque with a Pectoral Depicting Battle from the Achaemenid period incorporates aspects of the Egyptian, Levantine, and Mesopotamian artistic traditions. Yet this torque is a masterpiece of design that has an integrity all its own. It reflects a civilization that stretched from Arabia to the Caucasus, from the Aegean to the Indus Valley.

  Artistic influences followed the vast network of caravan routes that linked the cultures of the East and West. Not only material goods traveled these great trade arteries but ideas and religious movements as well. Buddhism illuminated all of Asia during its pilgrimage along these routes and each culture that this philosophy touched gave its own expression to Buddhist art. Two figures from the Miho's collection, the Gandhara Buddha from India during the third or fourth century AD and the image of the Buddha found on the Buddhist Votive Stele from northern China of the sixth century AD, exemplify the metamorphosis that Buddhist imagery underwent.

  A consolidation of ancient cultures reached a peak of refinement with the advent of Islamic Persia. Chronologically, the collection's most recent work of art is the Medallion Carpet. It is a fitting place to end the story of ancient man's striving to surpass himself by finding an image for the infinite. This carpet is a dazzling amalgam, teeming with angels, dragons, cats, peacocks, and other beasts both mythological and real. It is the product of an entirely new society that not only incorporated every major ancient culture that it touched but transformed them into something entirely new. It gives us a glimpse of heaven and earth that is cosmopolitan, tolerant, and vital and that allows us to focus our sights on the best that is possible for mankind.

  These treasures were gathered from across the distances of centuries so that the ancient sense of the sacred and eternal might be miraculously revived and again have the power to purify the human heart.

 SOUTHWING |  MIHO MAIN |  NORTHWING