Ceremonial Textile Decorated with Female Courtesans with Attendants and Parrots

Ceremonial Textile Decorated with Female Courtesans with Attendants and Parrots

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The imagery on this textile is related to manuscript paintings in the western Indian Jain style, and this textile type probably originated as a temple hanging in a Jain context. The women represented may be celestial maidens of Indra’s Heaven, where the gods reside.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ceremonial Textile Decorated with Female Courtesans with Attendants and ParrotsCeremonial Textile Decorated with Female Courtesans with Attendants and ParrotsCeremonial Textile Decorated with Female Courtesans with Attendants and ParrotsCeremonial Textile Decorated with Female Courtesans with Attendants and ParrotsCeremonial Textile Decorated with Female Courtesans with Attendants and Parrots

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.