Untitled

Unknown

16th century · Silk and metallic thread embroidery on silk satin · Asian Art

A Daoist magician stands in a spare, rocky landscape holding a bottle from which four tiny bats emanate. The bottle is labeled with the Chinese character fu, or happiness, which is a homophone with the word for "bat." The scene also features trees and flowering shrubs, including tree peonies in the foreground. The collectors' seals along the edges of the work appear to be problematic, except for a small vertical rectangle on the right side, which is the mark of the collector A. W. Bahr, who owned the textile before it entered the Museum's collection.

Artist

Unknown

Date

16th century

Medium

Silk and metallic thread embroidery on silk satin

Culture

China

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

From the Collection of A. W. Bahr, Purchase, Fletcher Fund, 1947