Textile with coiled dragons, Jin dynasty (1115–1234)
China
Tabby, brocaded; silk and gold thread
Technical Glossary
China
Tabby, brocaded; silk and gold thread
29 3/8 x 13 1/8 in. (74.5 x 33.2 cm)
Gift of Lisbet Holmes, 1989 (1989.205)
The motif of the coiled dragon chasing the pearl, although probably of Central Asian origin, was used in Chinese art since the Tang period (618–906). Textiles such as this example, which were produced under the Jin dynasty that immediately preceded the arrival of the Mongols, helped transmit the dragon motif to the Iranian world in the second half of the thirteenth century.
