Lotus and Waterbirds - Unidentified Artist

Unidentified artist

Ink and color on silk

Metropolitan Museum of Art

A pair of hanging scrolls unfurl into a quiet pond world, where soft pink lotus blossoms and broad jade leaves rise above dark, mirror-still water inhabited by pale waterbirds. Rendered with the delicate layering of ink and mineral pigments on silk characteristic of East Asian bird-and-flower painting, the composition balances botanical precision with poetic stillness. Likely created by a skilled but unrecorded court or studio painter, this genre carried deep symbolic weight, lotus flowers representing purity and rebirth amid the murky waters of worldly existence. Mounted as elegant scrolls with silk brocade borders, this diptych brings a serene, contemplative elegance reminiscent of traditional East Asian interiors to any modern wall.