Riding a Crane over a Beautiful Terrace

Embroidery 'Riding a crane over a beautiful terrace', Southern Song, China. Embroidery 'Riding a crane over a beautiful terrace', Southern Song, China. Copyright Liaoning Provincial Museum.

'Riding a Crane over a Beautiful Terrace' or ' Riding a Crane over Yaotai' is an embroidered picture based on a painting. It was worked during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) and used a plethora of different techniques, including consecutive stitch, darning, knot stitch, mixed straight stitch, net stitch, pine-needle stitch, random stitch, stem stitch, and couching.

 

The almost circular embroidery measures 25.2 x 27.1 cm. It depicts the Queen Mother of the West flying on a crane. Two figures are greeting her with pennants in their hands. The scene is filled with rugged mountains, clouds and waters, as well as pines and cypresses. The embroiderers used various materials, including different forms of gold thread  and a wide diversity of embroidery stitches. The pavillions are marked by overlapping stitches with laid and couched work. The clothing of the two figures is minutely indicated with long and short stitches.  

It is housed in the Liaoning Provincial museum.

Liaoning Provincial Museum online catalogue (retrieved 16th October 2016).

WV

Last modified on Wednesday, 24 May 2017 11:12