Silk Tapestry of the Painting "Plum Blossom and Magpie" (梅鵲圖)

This masterpiece, 104 centimeters long and 36 centimeters wide, is the work of Southern Song Dynasty master weaver Shen Zifan of Suzhou, who meticulously depicted this serene traditional landscape scene on silk.

Silk tapestry, known literally as "cut silk" in Chinese, refers to a method of weaving on a flat loom in which colored vertical threads are passed back and forth through a fixed matrix of horizontal threads to form the desired pattern. The term "cut silk" is derived from the fact that the patterns often appear as if they were literally cut out of a larger piece of cloth. It is regarded as the noblest form of silk weaving craftsmanship.