Cleveland Museum of Art

Brocade with Phoenixes

Date

1100s–1200s

Medium

tabby, brocaded; silk and gold thread

Culture

Central Asia, Jin dynasty (1115-1234)

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This elegant brocade of phoenixes, seen almost frontally, is woven with gold thread made from flat strips of gilded paper instead of the usual strips of gilded parchment. This suggests that the textile was woven in the southern part of the Jin state that had been annexed from the Chinese. Although probably intended to serve as secular clothing, this textile ended up in a Buddhist institution. The end was folded and stamped in red ink with a seated Buddha flanked by two Bodhisattvas (now faint and upside down). Two Tibetan inscriptions were also stamped (translation: "The Bhagavan, the Tathagata, the Arhat, the completely perfect Buddha," and "Salutations to Blo gnas.") Above, an isolated letter ka indicates that the textile was used to cover the first volume of a set of books.

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