Festival Robe

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The unusual green tone of the robe derives from peacock feather filaments that were individually twisted by hand onto the threads used to embroider the garment. Robes made in this laborious fashion were valued both for the work entailed and for their exotic quality as the peacock is not native to China. Textual sources trace the use of peacock feather filaments to the fifth century. The earliest surviving examples are fragments unearthed from the tomb of Ming Emperor Wanli (1572–1620) in a suburb of Beijing in the 1950s. A robe similar to this one is now in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing.

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