Mythical landscape with immortals

Unidentified artist

An item at Metropolitan Museum of 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.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art