Title

Cosmic Mount Meru, 18th century. Creator: Unknown.

Caption

Cosmic Mount Meru, 18th century. The setting, with beasts and floating skulls in a desolate landscape, focuses the mind of the meditator (or the initiate in a ceremony) upon mortality, and hence upon the eternal. Within the circle is a view of our world, seen from above (a sacred, imaginary conception, but based upon reality). The four continents are represented by groups of three buildings. India, the southern continent, appears on the left. Between the continents and Mt. Meru are seven concentric oceans and mountain ranges. Mt. Meru rises in the center. One heaven stands on its slopes, a second lies at its summit, and four float above it.

Credit line

Photo12/Heritage Images/Heritage Art

Reference

HRM23B21_310

Model release

NA

Property release

NA

License type

Rights managed

Available size

43,6Mb (2,9Mb) / 10,2in x 16,5in / 3074 x 4960 (300dpi)

Keywords

silhouette blue animal Asian Asia religious landscape arts painting night mountain mountains country religion China art Chinese continent museum geography heaven color circle decoration decorative sacred craft crafts eternity location century material textiles fabric sewing NEEDLEWORK cloth silk textile Tibet Tibetan concept cosmology decorated mortality time of day wild animal embroidery cosmic mountainside embroidered eternal decorative arts Colour Mount Meru 18th century applique appliqué Eighteenth Century geographical feature TGN blessed landscape Unknown silk Walters Art Museum Heritage Art appliquéd appliqued appliqu? and embroidery with silk