Embroidery with Scrolling Forms

CultureChinese

DateWestern Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.-9 C.E.)

MediumSilk chain stitch embroidery on silk tabby mounted on new cotton

DimensionsOverall: 23 1/4 × 19 1/2 inches (59.06 × 49.53 cm)
Mount: 25 3/4 × 22 inches (65.41 × 55.88 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust through the George H. and Elizabeth O. Davis Fund

Object number2006.24

On View

Not on view

Collections

East Asian Art

Terms

DescriptionThe rectangular silk embroidery is now mounted on a red cotton fabric. The silk is embroidered in delicate chainstitch using white, yellow, green, light- and dark-blue silk thread over a plainly woven red silk tabby. The chainstitches create the repeating patterns of white scrolling clouds and dark-blue disks over the background of spiral motifs. A border remaining in one of the long edges is designed with a saw-tooth pattern and spiral patterns. A scrolling mountain form remains on one of the short edges, in which the cutting suggests that this mountain motif was one part of a larger design. The silk retains the brightness of colors. The embroidery has losses in several areas.Provenance

Provenance

Arthur Leeper Asian Art;

Purchased from Arthur Leeper Asian Art by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2006.

Published References

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 301, fig.57, (repro.).

Colin Mackenzie, with contributions by Ling-En Lu, Masterworks of Chinese art: the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, Mo.: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2011), 12, (repro.).

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