明 織錦經面|Book or Sutra Cover with Lady Bearing a Conch
Unknown
16th century · Plain-weave silk with supplementary weft patterning · Asian Art
Sutras printed in the accordion-fold format were often encased by covers wrapped in decorative silks. Covers both protected the sacred words and presented the sutras in beautiful envelopes that signaled the importance of the contents within. These examples from the sixteenth century indicate the variety of sutra cover motifs, including some seemingly irrelevant to Buddhist philosophy, such as dragons, phoenixes, or the character shou, meaning longevity
- Artist
- Unknown
- Date
- 16th century
- Medium
- Plain-weave silk with supplementary weft patterning
- Culture
- China
- Department
- Asian Art
- Credit line
- Anonymous Gift, 1956
