In Chinese, both goats and sheep are called yang 羊, which sounds like the word for “sun” (yang 陽). Three goats together, a motif repeated three times here, thus evokes the phrase “three suns welcome spring” (sanyang kaitai 三陽開泰), a wish for an auspicious new year taken from the ancient Book of Change (Yi Jing).
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Artwork Details
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明早期 刺繡開泰圖
Title:Welcoming spring
Artist:Unidentified artist Chinese, 14th–15th century
Period:Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
Date:15th century
Culture:China
Medium:Silk embroidery on simple gauze silk
Dimensions:Overall: 84 x 25 in. (213.4 x 63.5 cm)
Classification:Textiles-Embroidered
Credit Line:Purchase, The Dillon Fund Gift, 1981
Object Number:1981.410
Marking: Six stamped seals (Qianlong)
[ Moke Mokotoff , New York, until 1981; sold to MMA]
Cleveland Museum of Art. "When Silk Was Gold," October 20, 1997–January 4, 1998.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "When Silk Was Gold," March 3, 1998–May 17, 1998.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Text and Image: The Interaction of Painting, Poetry, and Calligraphy," January 23–August 16, 1999.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The World of Scholars' Rocks: Gardens, Studios, and Paintings," February 1–August 20, 2000.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Arts of the Ming Dynasty: China's Age of Brilliance," January 23–September 13, 2009.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Chinese Gardens: Pavilions, Studios, Retreats," August 18, 2012–January 6, 2013.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Chinese Textiles: Ten Centuries of Masterpieces from the Met Collection," August 15, 2015–June 19, 2016.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Noble Virtues: Nature as Symbol in Chinese Art," September 10, 2022–January 29, 2023.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Notable Acquisitions 1981–1982; Selected by Philippe de Montebello, 39, 1981–82. p. 75.
Howard, Kathleen, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983, p. 269, fig. 63.
Burn, Barbara. Metropolitan Children. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1984, p. 58.
Barnhart, Richard M. (Introduction). The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Asia. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987, p. 80, pl. 46.
Howard, Kathleen, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. 2nd ed., New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994, p. 121, fig. 63.
"Textiles in the Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 53, no. 3, Winter 1995–96. p. 75.
Watt, James C. Y. "Textiles of the Mongol Period in China." Orientation 29, no. 3 (March 1998). p. 80, fig. 13.
Bickford, Maggie. "Three Rams and Three Friends: The Working Lives of Chinese Auspicious Motifs." Asia Major 12, no. 1 (1999). pp. 127–55, on p. 134, fig. 3.
Liu Shi-yee 劉晞儀 (Liu, Xiyi). "Zhao Mengfu's Foreshortened Animal Images: A Glimpse into the Cross-cultural Fervour of the Yuan Dynasty." Arts of Asia 46, no. 2 (March–April 2016). pp. 98–110, on p. 106, fig. 18.
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