The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 6, 2023

Embroidery from a Cloud Collar: Ocean, Rocks, and Peonies

云肩刺繡：海、石，牡丹

1300s

China, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) - early Ming dynasty

(1368-1644)

Silk and silver thread, silvered paper; needleloop embroidery

Overall: 63.8 x 60 cm (25 1/8 x 23 5/8 in.); Mounted: 69.8 x 67.3 cm (27 1/2 x 26 1/2 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1993.10

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

Judging from the border on the lower portion, this fragment is most of one lobe of a cloud-collar medallion. Each of the three other original sections would have been embroidered with the same design.

Description

Against a deep blue satin ground, a peony tree emerges from an undulating sea. This embroidery was made using the needle looping technique, in which rows of detached loops are worked over silvered paper, attaching the ground only along the contours of the design. The design is filled with auspicious symbols, including the peony symbolizing wealth and honor, and the rock (shoushi 壽石) symbolizing longevity. There are small Buddhist symbols among the flowers, including the wheel of the law, a pair of conch shells representing the sounds of the Buddha’s teachings, and a swastika, an auspicious symbol signifying good fortune introduced into China from India with Buddhism.

Provenance
?–1993
(Lisbet Holmes Textiles, London, England, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1993–
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
"1993 Annual Report." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 6 (1994): 143–218. Reproduced: p. 214; Mentioned: p. 167 www.jstor.org
Watt, James C. Y., Anne E. Wardwell, and Morris Rossabi. When silk was gold: Central Asian and Chinese textiles. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art in cooperation with the Cleveland Museum of Art: Distributed by H.N. Abrams, 1997. Reproduced: pp. 186–187, cat. no. 55 libmma.contentdm.oclc.org
Exhibition history

Gallery 239 textile rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 9, 2015-March 10, 2016).

When Silk Was Gold: Central Asian & Chinese Textiles from the Cleveland and Metropolitan Museums of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (organizer) (March 2-May 17, 1998).

Flora and Fauna (Chinese art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 6, 2020-June 6, 2021).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1993.10