Long Cloth

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Indian textile makers were highly responsive to their customers’ desires, adjusting styles to suit specific markets. This design of this cloth represents a rare, loosely drawn version of a European-inspired textile produced expressly for the Indonesian consumer. Indian artists painted the stylized repeating pineapple plant motif so it would resemble fashionable European lace-patterned woven silks. Prototypes are readily identified in silks from Lyon, France, and Spitalfields (London) from about 1700. However, a comparison with the panel of chintz shown adjacent—which was made for the European market—illustrates how Indian artists sought to satisfy Indonesian tastes by creating a freer rendering of the European style. cat. no. 48

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