Preamble
For your convenience I have listed below other posts in this series on Chinese textiles:
Chinese Textiles: Amy Clague's Brocade Collection (Part I)
Chinese Textiles: Amy Clague's Tapestry Collection (Part I)
Chinese Textiles: Amy Clague’s Tapestry Collection (Part II)
Chinese Textiles: Amy Clague’s Embroidery Collection (Part I)
Chinese Textiles: Amy Clague’s Brocade Collection (Part II)
Chinese Clothing Historical Overview - Part 1
Chinese Clothing: Shenyi and Broad Sleeves - Part I
Chinese Clothing: Shenyi and Broad Sleeves - Part II
Chinese Textiles - Amy Clague’s Embroidery Collection
Buddhist Ritual Diadem
Ming Dynasty, 15th Century.
Techniques and Materials: Silk of broken twill weave, embroidered with polychrome silk threads using laid and couched, split satin, and outline stitches.
Composed of five sections: height 16.5 cm; width 12.5 - 13 cm; band: width 3 cm and length 46 cm.
Leather tie: width 1.5 cm and length 27 cm.
Detail of one of the panels.
Comment[1]: This Buddhist ritual diadem (Tibetan, rig-na) of the type used in Tantric practices dates from the fifteenth century, a period when China had close religious and cultural ties with Tibet. The diadem is composed of five sections joined at the lower edge by a band with leather ties on either end. Each of the five panels displays an enthroned figure, one of the Five Tathagatas (Transcendent or Dhyani Buddhas, also known as the Five Jinas): from left to right, they are Ratnasambhava (yellow), Akshobhya (blue), Vairochana (white), Amitabha (red), and Amoghasiddhi (green). Each Buddha sits in a lotus position on a lotus throne adorned with drapery that indicates the symbol of that particular Buddha. Each throne is flanked by a pair of white elephants, a pair of dark blue lions and a pair of light blue rams. Centered above each Buddha is a garuda, a protective mythical bird, flanked by a pair of green dragons from whose mouth a flaming pearl issues forth. These images are enclosed by an overall border of dark blue ornamented by gold dots representing jewels. Outside this border are delicately shaded cloud scrolls in blue, green, gold and white. This pattern is in turn enclosed in a roundel, that identifies each Buddha. The five sections of the crown are edged with a narrow cord that also connects them together. The headband at the bottom depicts repeated gold vajras, or thunderbolts, interspersed with decorative motifs against a dark blue background bordered in gold.
Rectangular Silk Fragment with Scrolling Lotus Blossoms.
Ming Dynasty, ca 1400 - 1435.
Techniques and Materials: Silk gauze with needle loop embroidery; navy blue ribbed gauze ground with detached loop embroidery in polychrome silk yarns over backing paper with gold over a ground bole.
Height 13 cm and width 56.5 cm (max).
Detail of one section of front panel.
Back of the above detail.
Detail of the embroidery.
Comment[1]: This silk fragment is embroidered in the needle loop technique with a pattern of five lotus blossoms, each divided into nine stylized petals. The ground fabric itself is extraordinary (see following slides): a dark blue, finely ribbed gauze, a luxurious cloth regardless of its additional embellishment.
Detail: Optical microscopy revealing the weave of the textile.
Comment[1]: The embellishing embroidery displays a great variety of colored silk threads - including dark blue, light blue, dark green, light green, yellow and white - worked with precision in a variety of detached, 'needle looped' stitches over a gold surfaced paper. The gold of the backing paper is applied over a pink bole.
Detail: Optical microscopy revealing the gilded paper.
Comment[1]: Each blossom is different: there are no exact repeating patterns, but there is a continuous rhythm and proportion. The centers of each blossom are accented with embroiderer's knots. The lower border is a slightly smaller rendition of the top one. No selvages remain to indicate the size of the original woven ground; the surviving fragments differ in width but have a consistent height.
The stately pacing of the motifs suggest a link to palace designs of the early fifteenth century. This proposed dating is supported by a radiocarbon test performed on a sample removed from a nearly identical fragment.
Rectangular Silk Altarm Table or Desk Frontal with Pleated Valance, and with Decoration of Dragons and Flaming Pearls amid Clouds and Waves.
Ming to Qing Dynasty, 17 - 18th Century.
Techniques and Materials: Silk gauze with counted stitch embroidery in polychrome silk threads; minor ink details.
Height 79 cm and width 256.5 cm.
Comment[1]: This densely embroidered cloth is designed with three large five-clawed dragons. Its width is generous enough to wrap around three sides of a large table or desk. The dragons are positioned so that the main one would show on the front of the table, while the two smaller ones would be displayed on the sides. The pleats of the valance were probably intended to be distributed with three on each side and five on the front, and displayed in that manner would have a symmetrical alternation of blue and white dragons.
A close look at the stitches reveals a painstaking technique in which a loosely woven gauze is embroidered with the stitch approximately 2 millimetres in length, each covering two woven units. Called counted stitch (nazhen), this technique produces a thick and heavy fabric. In this textile the embroiderer has covered the entire gauze ground; thus it may be considered najin (full count embroidery). The surface of the gauze is entirely stitched in silk yarns of various colors, including shades of red, blue, green, brown, grey and black.
Reference:
[1] C. Brown et al., Weaving China’s Past, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix (2002).
For your convenience I have listed below other posts in this series on Chinese textiles:
Chinese Textiles: Amy Clague's Brocade Collection (Part I)
Chinese Textiles: Amy Clague's Tapestry Collection (Part I)
Chinese Textiles: Amy Clague’s Tapestry Collection (Part II)
Chinese Textiles: Amy Clague’s Embroidery Collection (Part I)
Chinese Textiles: Amy Clague’s Brocade Collection (Part II)
Chinese Clothing Historical Overview - Part 1
Chinese Clothing: Shenyi and Broad Sleeves - Part I
Chinese Clothing: Shenyi and Broad Sleeves - Part II
Chinese Textiles - Amy Clague’s Embroidery Collection
Buddhist Ritual Diadem
Techniques and Materials: Silk of broken twill weave, embroidered with polychrome silk threads using laid and couched, split satin, and outline stitches.
Composed of five sections: height 16.5 cm; width 12.5 - 13 cm; band: width 3 cm and length 46 cm.
Leather tie: width 1.5 cm and length 27 cm.
Comment[1]: This Buddhist ritual diadem (Tibetan, rig-na) of the type used in Tantric practices dates from the fifteenth century, a period when China had close religious and cultural ties with Tibet. The diadem is composed of five sections joined at the lower edge by a band with leather ties on either end. Each of the five panels displays an enthroned figure, one of the Five Tathagatas (Transcendent or Dhyani Buddhas, also known as the Five Jinas): from left to right, they are Ratnasambhava (yellow), Akshobhya (blue), Vairochana (white), Amitabha (red), and Amoghasiddhi (green). Each Buddha sits in a lotus position on a lotus throne adorned with drapery that indicates the symbol of that particular Buddha. Each throne is flanked by a pair of white elephants, a pair of dark blue lions and a pair of light blue rams. Centered above each Buddha is a garuda, a protective mythical bird, flanked by a pair of green dragons from whose mouth a flaming pearl issues forth. These images are enclosed by an overall border of dark blue ornamented by gold dots representing jewels. Outside this border are delicately shaded cloud scrolls in blue, green, gold and white. This pattern is in turn enclosed in a roundel, that identifies each Buddha. The five sections of the crown are edged with a narrow cord that also connects them together. The headband at the bottom depicts repeated gold vajras, or thunderbolts, interspersed with decorative motifs against a dark blue background bordered in gold.
Rectangular Silk Fragment with Scrolling Lotus Blossoms.
Techniques and Materials: Silk gauze with needle loop embroidery; navy blue ribbed gauze ground with detached loop embroidery in polychrome silk yarns over backing paper with gold over a ground bole.
Height 13 cm and width 56.5 cm (max).
Comment[1]: This silk fragment is embroidered in the needle loop technique with a pattern of five lotus blossoms, each divided into nine stylized petals. The ground fabric itself is extraordinary (see following slides): a dark blue, finely ribbed gauze, a luxurious cloth regardless of its additional embellishment.
Comment[1]: The embellishing embroidery displays a great variety of colored silk threads - including dark blue, light blue, dark green, light green, yellow and white - worked with precision in a variety of detached, 'needle looped' stitches over a gold surfaced paper. The gold of the backing paper is applied over a pink bole.
Comment[1]: Each blossom is different: there are no exact repeating patterns, but there is a continuous rhythm and proportion. The centers of each blossom are accented with embroiderer's knots. The lower border is a slightly smaller rendition of the top one. No selvages remain to indicate the size of the original woven ground; the surviving fragments differ in width but have a consistent height.
The stately pacing of the motifs suggest a link to palace designs of the early fifteenth century. This proposed dating is supported by a radiocarbon test performed on a sample removed from a nearly identical fragment.
Rectangular Silk Altarm Table or Desk Frontal with Pleated Valance, and with Decoration of Dragons and Flaming Pearls amid Clouds and Waves.
Techniques and Materials: Silk gauze with counted stitch embroidery in polychrome silk threads; minor ink details.
Height 79 cm and width 256.5 cm.
Comment[1]: This densely embroidered cloth is designed with three large five-clawed dragons. Its width is generous enough to wrap around three sides of a large table or desk. The dragons are positioned so that the main one would show on the front of the table, while the two smaller ones would be displayed on the sides. The pleats of the valance were probably intended to be distributed with three on each side and five on the front, and displayed in that manner would have a symmetrical alternation of blue and white dragons.
A close look at the stitches reveals a painstaking technique in which a loosely woven gauze is embroidered with the stitch approximately 2 millimetres in length, each covering two woven units. Called counted stitch (nazhen), this technique produces a thick and heavy fabric. In this textile the embroiderer has covered the entire gauze ground; thus it may be considered najin (full count embroidery). The surface of the gauze is entirely stitched in silk yarns of various colors, including shades of red, blue, green, brown, grey and black.
Reference:
[1] C. Brown et al., Weaving China’s Past, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix (2002).
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