Sutra covers with the Eight Buddhist Treasures

What it is

These are two rectangular sutra covers made of red lacquer, with incised decoration and gold inlay. The Metropolitan Museum of Art dates them to the Yongle period (1403 to 1424). The museum received them as a gift of Florence and Herbert Irving in 2015. The image in the record shows two covers on a grey background, with gold-painted floral scrolls, a central stupa and symbolic motifs inside a bordered frame. The upper cover sits slightly higher than the lower one.

Why it matters

Sutra covers protected Buddhist scriptures. The museum's curator notes that these covers show the imperial Buddhist work commissioned during the Yongle Emperor's reign. They show that the court of a Ming emperor took part in Buddhist art, and they show the high level of lacquer work of the period. The donors, Florence and Herbert Irving, are the people the record names as giving them to the museum.

Look closer

• Which symbols and shapes can you find on the covers, and what might the central stupa suggest?
• Who would have used covers like these, and why did they need to be decorated?
• What would you miss by looking only at a picture rather than at the covers themselves?