Page 52 - Chiense TExtiles, MET MUSEUM Pub 1934

THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
dragons in dull blues, grays, and mauve, while in the
conventionalized dragon motive of the outer border
and in the cloud scrolls and conventionalized shou and
wan characters of the inner border, the colors are soft
rose, green, blues, and tans; these richly wrought mo-
tives on the imperial yellow ground form a complete
whole which, like the delicate k' o sst~ work, is not of a
blatant beauty and must be studied with care to be fully
appreciated.
The satin stitch, which is used more or less on almost
every mandarin square, is exemplified with particular
brilliance in the square illustrated in figure ro, an early
eighteenth-century piece which is one of the most beau-
tiful in the whole collection of squares, both in its de-
sign (which, by the way, might startle some of the so-
called modernist painters) and in the exquisite combi-
nation and clarity of its colors.
In a large apricot-colored satin hanging from the
Havemeyer Collection the satin stitch appears together
with the split and couching stitches, but here the work
is markedly different in execution from the examples al-
ready discussed and is the product of Cantonese em-
broiderers. This is the type of embroidery found on the
so-called Spanish shawls, many of which were, and still
are, actually embroidered in Canton.
The petit point, Florentine, and canvas stitches which
are shown on a Lamaist temple banner (not illustrated)
of the Ming dynasty are the earliest examples of these
stitches that we know o£ As they appear on this textile
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