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Lily and Butterflies
Liu Shanshou (Chinese, active 1300s)
1300s
- Medium
- Hanging scroll; ink on silk
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Painting: 160 x 58.4 cm (63 x 23 in.); Overall with knobs: 277.7 x 85.2 cm (109 5/16 x 33 9/16 in.)
- Culture
- China, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Chinese Art
- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
The bird is represented in pale ink, probably sketched in before the darker ink was used to finish the rock. Like the butterfly and moth above, his tail feathers echo the bamboo as well as the leaves and petals of the flowers. The Chinese wagtail can connote brotherly love. The daylily was used for various pharmaceutical purposes, especially for deadening pain in childbirth. It was also considered efficacious in relieving grief and aiding in the production of sons. The lily is in fact the real subject of this painting: it is the common symbol for motherly love. Hence, the lingering of the butterfly over a lily can signify a son's love, devotion, and yearning for his mother—the refuge from worldly woes.
