Secrets and alloys: At a show in Amsterdam, hidden tales tumble out of ancient Asian bronzes

But the history of bronze across Asia is so rich, so ancient, that scholars around the world are still uncovering its secrets.

In the Netherlands, for instance, they recently found that a tantric Buddhist statuette from 15th-century Tibet held, within it, tiny relics and secret scrolls. An amorphous bronze from 3,500 years ago, that looks only somewhat human, has drawn attention for its rather Modernist cast.

A total of 75 such artefacts from across 4,000 years have been on display at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, in an exhibition titled Asian Bronze that concludes this week. The show features artefacts from India, China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, Nepal and Indonesia.

Some of these are on loan from institutions such as the national museums of India and Pakistan, Linden Museum in Stuttgart, and Museum of Contemporary Art in Bangkok.

Why the focus on bronze?

In the ancient world, few materials offered the advantages of this metal, says Anna A Slaczka, curator of South Asian Art at Rijksmuseum.

The alloy (generally 88% copper and 12% tin) was easy to make, not hard to mould, durable, relatively cheap (at least in Asia, where tin was abundant), and yet could be buffed to a fine shine.

Its gold-like appearance gave it an enduring role in both art and religion.

Even today, it is the material of religious idols and artefacts, incense burners, lamps, bells, statuettes, keepsakes and items of home décor, around the world, but particularly in Asia.

What sparked the current exhibition Rijksmuseum were the secrets curators found tucked away within the few bronze artefacts in their collection.

Over 10 years, Slaczka and her colleagues — curator of South-East Asian art William Southworth, curator of Chinese art Ching-Ling Wang, and metal restorer and researcher Sara Creange — used simple methods such as the X-ray, and then more cutting-edge ones like the neutron scan, to peer within bronze objects from Asia, in attempts to better understand how the techniques used to make them differed from those used in Europe.

What they found surprised them in ways they hadn’t expected.

As secrets tumbled out and new mysteries took shape, the desire to share their findings with a wider audience led to the idea of an exhibition, Slaczka says. Given the museum’s own limited collection of Asian bronzes, loans from other institutions would be needed. This took years to put in place.

“The idea for the exhibition was first discussed early on in our research,” she adds. “Work on the exhibition then began in 2023. Ours is really a museum of Dutch history and Flemish painting. This is the first large exhibition on Asia ever held here.”

What so excited them about their finds, that they had to shared them with the world? A look at four of the most intriguing objects.

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Tiny scrolls in a statuette

This is the artefact that started it all. The 15th-century Tibetan bronze, 12.5 inches high, is called the Guhyasamaja Aksobhya (Tibetan for Unshakeable Union). It depicts a three-headed male deity in a tantric embrace with a female counterpart, their union symbolising a spiritual awakening.

When it was drawn from the Rijksmuseum collection and scanned, curators realised that ancient scrolls and what appear to be sacred relics had been tucked away within the hollow body.

There is no way to retrieve them, or tell what they say. Why would they have been placed here? This artefact was likely hugely significant, and meant to be used in ritual worship, Slaczka says. “It was perhaps not intended to be viewed by the uninitiated, since every detail appears to hold significance.”

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Lobster-shaped incense burner

The lobster is a symbol of longevity and luxury in Japan. What’s interesting is how true-to-life this one is, and therein lies its story.

This artefact dates to the Meiji period (1868-1912), a time when the Edo shogunate had yielded to the return of imperial rule. A nation that had been closed to the world for more than two centuries was now drawing on influences from around the world, including Europe and China. This would become evident in its art. Combined with new developments in metal-working technology, sculpture in particular saw a shift towards intricate, hyper-real representations of real and mythical creatures.

All this comes together in the lobster-shaped incense burner, loaned from the Cernuschi museum of Asian art in Paris, and explains why it looks like so real, one half expects to see it scuttle across the floor.

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Anthropomorphic figure

This artefact was recovered from the Ganges Valley in India, and is about 3,500 years old. It is one of many such bronze figures recovered from the region.

Its purpose remains unknown, though it was clearly not built to be functional (it is neither weapon nor tool). It was instead sculpted and stylised mindfully, perhaps to fulfil a ritualistic function, or as a decorative item.

This one was playfully named “Patrick” by the Rijksmuseum staff, for its resemblance to the cheerful pink starfish from SpongeBob SquarePants.

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Images hidden in mirrors

Before the invention of glass (likely in Mesopotamia, 4,000 years ago), highly polished bronze was used as a mirror.

Several of these survive in public collections but cannot be polished, for fear of damaging them. And so, to help visitors get a sense of how they got the job done, a giant bronze mirror was commissioned, from an artisan in Aranmula, Kerala, historically known for its bronze mirrors.

The giant new artefact now sits alongside its tarnished ancestors, inviting people to understand them better and, Slaczka says, perhaps crown their experience with a selfie.

Some of the ancient mirrors on display hold other secrets, though.

In 17th-century Japan, for instance, artisans perfected a technique for embedding Christian imagery in the metal. Christianity was banned in the country at the time. But buy one of the special mirrors and it was as good as having a home altar; if light hit it at just the right angle, it threw out an image of a cross or the Virgin Mary.

Two such pieces were commissioned for the show, and were crafted by Yamamoto Akihisa, a fifth-generation Kyoto artisan.

The mirror room, as Slaczka puts it, is the ultimate reflection of what this metal can do.