Floor Covering or Hanging (Pha Kiao)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Luxury painted cotton textiles expressly commissioned for the Siamese royal court constitute a specialized category of the Indian chintz trade. They include designs that closely follow Thai aesthetics—densely rendered decorative detail typically arranged in trellis-like lattice patterns that repeat across a central field. Here figures of the Hindu deity Brahma emanate from cartouches set within a trellis pattern of heavenly nymphs (apsara) and sandal-flower rosettes. Its intricate decorative detail was achieved by a series of repeat resist-dyeing processes that built up the pattern’s polychrome complexity. cat. no. 40

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