Sari-length textile

Sari-length textile

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bengali muslins have been admired for their delicacy of weave and refined decoration since antiquity. The skill of Bengal weavers has been long praised and their product once formed a staple of the Indo-Roman trade to the Mediterraean, where Pliny captured the cloth’s ephemeral quality, referring to it as “woven air.” In these examples, silver and gold-wrapped thread has been integrated into the fabric of the cloth, creating an in-weave design of great delicacy.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.