The Four Accomplishments Painting Pillow

This work illustrates the Four Accomplishments — qin (playing the zither), qi (the strategy game of Go), shu (calligraphy), and hua (painting) — the four elegant pursuits every cultivated Chinese scholar was expected to master. The Cleveland Museum of Art's version takes the form of a pair of screens showing elite gentlemen and their servants at leisure in the countryside, one absorbed in a painting, others watching a game of Go, with a qin and books laid out nearby. Mastery of these four arts signified sophistication and moral cultivation, making the theme a perennial favorite for depicting the ideal scholarly life.

Jacquard-woven both sides in soft, durable yarn; insert included.