Textile with dragons and phoenixes

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This fragment is a rare example of cloth of gold—a textile of silk woven with gold thread—that was produced in China and Central Asia under the Mongol Yuan dynasty. The two lower roundels each feature a robust dragon chasing a flaming pearl; an upper row of three depicts phoenixes, now mostly lost. All are set against a ground of tiny gold hexagons.

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