Celestial Musician
Unknown Artist
1300s
Medium
silk and gold thread over two layers of cotton, embroidery
Dimensions
66.5 × 45 cm
Classification
Embroidery
Department
Textiles
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
John L. Severance Fund
Accession Number
1987.145
About this artwork
Although a number of Buddhist textiles produced in the Sino-Tibetan style survive, Central Asian embroideries from the same period are exceedingly rare. Here, a goddess standing on a lotus support and playing a bowed lute may be the personification of the sense of hearing. In Buddhism, the five senses were represented as female deities, each a different color (in this case, blue). The style of the figure, her hair, the form of her crown, the nervously ruffled hem, the scrolling scarves, and the ...