Scroll Cover with Animals, Birds, and Flowers

Scroll Cover with Animals, Birds, and Flowers

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A classic example of Song tapestry, this elegant scroll cover resembles a famous uncut piece (now in Liaoning Provincial Museum, China). This tapestry entered the Museum’s collection as the handscroll cover for the masterpiece Old Trees, Level Distance by Guo Xi (ca. 1020–ca. 1090). The placement of the animals in the pattern illustrates a strong connection with tapestries from Central Asia, which may have served as the source for the introduction of the tapestry technique to China.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Scroll Cover with Animals, Birds, and FlowersScroll Cover with Animals, Birds, and FlowersScroll Cover with Animals, Birds, and FlowersScroll Cover with Animals, Birds, and FlowersScroll Cover with Animals, Birds, and Flowers

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.