清 緙絲山水人物圖|Mythical landscape with immortals
Unidentified artist
19th century · Silk tapestry (kesi) with sections of hand-painted ink and color · Asian Art
This imposing set of ten silk tapestries depicts a mountainscape of magic and wonder. In the center, assembled scholars gaze up at a group of cloud-borne female immortals as they descend to the earthly realm. Waves surge with numinous intensity as auspicious cranes circle and mystical deer prance through the hills. The blue-green color palette reinforces the sense of a world inhabited by mystical forces. These colorful tapestries were created using the kesi technique, in which the picture is created by laboriously weaving in individual threads of different-colored silk, though their makers painted many of the details after weaving to speed up the process.
- Artist
- Unidentified artist
- Date
- 19th century
- Medium
- Silk tapestry (kesi) with sections of hand-painted ink and color
- Culture
- China
- Department
- Asian Art
- Credit line
- John Stewart Kennedy Fund, 1913
