“Expedition to Asia—The Prominent Exchanges between East and West in the 17th Century,” runs until March 10 next year and features around 180 items. The show comprises objects contributed by NPM, Taipei-based National Taiwan University and the Cultural Affairs Bureau of Tainan City Government in southern Taiwan, along with the Netherland’s Rijksmuseum and Japan’s Umi-Mori Art Museum and Museum of Oriental Ceramics.
The exhibition’s “Adventurous Footprints” section focuses on the experiences of Dutch merchants and missionaries in the East. “Exotic Curios” features artworks from Asia and Europe that imagined what life on the other continent was like.
Artifacts that showcase Eastern cultures and beliefs are the subject of “Oriental Sentiment,” while the final section “Global Encounters” includes works incorporating imported Western artistic techniques, knowledge and technologies.
The oil painting “East Indian Market Stall in Batavia” attributed to Dutch artist Albert Eckhout is on display in Taiwan for the first time at the NPM exhibition. (Courtesy of NPM)
A highlight of the exhibition is Rijksmuseum’s oil painting “East Indian Market Stall in Batavia” attributed to Dutch artist Albert Eckhout. Displayed for the first time in Taiwan, it depicts tropical fruit traders in the capital city of the former Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta.
NPM, established in 1965, is the world’s largest treasure house of Chinese imperial art, boasting nearly 700,000 antiquities covering 7,000 years from the prehistoric Neolithic period to the end of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). In 2015, the institution opened a second branch in southern Taiwan’s Chiayi County to showcase artifacts from diverse Asian civilizations. (KWS-E)
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