2-724-789 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Brocade with Hares, 13th to mid 14th Century. Brocade with Hares Tabby, brocaded; silk and gold thread Northern China, Mongol Period (1207-1368) The Cleveland Museum of Art, Seventy-fifth anniversary gift of Lisbet Holmes 1991.113 (Cat. no. 34) The motif of the hare among bushes may relate to the hunting activities of the Khitan, the Jurchen, and the Mongols. Hare hunts are recorded in the Liaoshi (History of the Liao Dynasty) and were often reported by envoys returning to China from the northern states. The asymmetry of the image in this textile is characteristic of Jin brocades. However, the paired (instead of single) warps reveal the influence of craftsmen from the eastern Iranian world and therefore dates the textile to the Mongol period.