The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 14, 2025

Rectangular canopy textile with a golden-brown dragon snaking across a red-orange, flower-patterned background in the center and bordered by a pattern of gold flowers and vines across a dark blue background. The dragon snakes from the upper to lower center, their body extending beyond the textile before their head pops up in the lower left corner. Scales in brown gradations color their body, outlined in gold, with a light blue spine specked with dark blue.

Canopy with Dragon among Flowers

1100s/1400s

China, Center: Southern Song dynasty

(1127-1270) Border: Ming dynasty (1368-1644)
Center: silk, gold, tapestry weave (kesi). Border: silk, gold, lampas weave
Overall: 87 x 84.5 cm (34 1/4 x 33 1/4 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1995.1
Location: Not on view

Description

The tapestry sewn into the center of this canopy depicts dragons among flowers, a classic design in Chinese art. Its weavers paid attention to fine details, such as the color gradation of the dragon’s scales, or subtle color changes in the flower petals and leaves. The selection of colored silk threads is soft in tone but rich in variety. All these stylistic characteristics indicate that this tapestry was woven in an imperial Southern Song workshop in the capital of Hangzhou, a center of textile production in the Jiangnan region.
  • ?–1995
    (The Textile Gallery, London, England, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1995–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Shaffer, Daniel. "Marketplace: On the Crest of a Wave." HALI; the international journal of Oriental carpets and textiles, 43 (February 1989), p. 108. Reproduced: p. 108
    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. Mentioned: cat. no. 22, pp. 85-86; Reproduced: cat. no. 22, p. 85
    Wardwell, Anne and James C. Watt. "A Meeting of Traditions." HALI; the international journal of Oriental carpets and textiles, 95 (November 1997), pp. 102–104. Reproduced: fig. 5
    Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 52–53
    Griswold, William, Xiaofei Tian, Richard Von Glahn, Feng Zhao, S. J. Vainker, Masaaki Itakura, Jiang Wu, et al. China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta. Edited by Clarissa Von Spee. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023. Mentioned and reproduced: p.164, no. 52
  • China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10, 2023-January 7, 2024).
    Gallery 239 textile rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (December 5, 2013-March 9, 2015).
    When Silk Was Gold: Central Asian & Chinese Textiles from the Cleveland and Metropolitan Museums of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 26, 1997-January 4, 1998); The Metropolitan Museum of Art (organizer) (March 2-May 17, 1998).
  • {{cite web|title=Canopy with Dragon among Flowers|url=false|author=|year=1100s/1400s|access-date=14 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1995.1