"A Journey of Knowledge - 'The Travels of Marco Polo' and its Legacy between East and West" opened to the public at the China Millennium Monument Art Museum in Beijing from July 26 to Nov 24, showcasing the historical fruits of exchanges between the West and the East.
It is one of the events to celebrate the legacy of Venetian merchant Marco Polo on the 700th anniversary of his passing, and to mark the 20th anniversary of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Italy.
The exhibition showcases 135 artifacts sourced from 13 cultural institutions in Italy and two in China, including medieval parchments, oil paintings, sculptures, textiles, and weapons.
"[The exhibition] features a wide variety of items. We have detailed requirements to display them clearly in a panoramic way, revealing all parts and details. In the dimly lit galleries, visitors can enjoy the same high-level care given to the artifacts, as the temperature, humidity and lighting are all strictly controlled and monitored with data recorded every day," said Jiang Haimei, planning director of the museum, in an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN).
Divided into six sections, the exhibition takes visitors along the Old Silk Road, retracing Marco Polo's journey and exploring intercultural exchanges across Eurasia from the 13th to the 19th centuries.
"Marco Polo was not only a historical figure, a traveler and a merchant, but today he is a cultural symbol that is open, inclusive, altruistic and friendly, or we can say he is an open figure. Although Marco Polo himself is not prominently featured in our exhibits - except for a few of his books and his will - his spirit runs throughout," she said.
Curators from China and Italy worked together to present the exhibition. Guicciardo Sassoli de' Bianchi Strozzi, an Italian curator, introduced one of the highlight exhibits, an ancient map, to CGTN.
"I'm pleased to talk about the Fra Mauro map that has been done in Venice in the middle of the 15th century. And that is one of the first view of the entire world made thanks to the "Il Milione" [travels] of Marco Polo. Especially there's Italy that is shown on the opposite, because at that time the maps were done in the opposite way, not like nowadays. And there is also the entire China with all the descriptions of monuments and cities on the entire China. And that is wonderful to think that from Venice we were creating an idea of China through Marco Polo. So it is a wonderful example of relations between the countries since centuries, till of course nowadays and the future," he said.
Exhibition highlights Marco Polo's legacy in East-West cultural exchange
