Monkey Serving Goddess of Mercury

As one of the five planets worshipped by the ancient Chinese, Mercury has been represented by the image of beautiful females in the Chinese culture because the Chinese believe that Mercury falls into the category of yin which symbolizes the female based on the conceptions of yin and yang.
The beautiful curvaceous lady sitting on the couch is the Mercury Goddess. The monkey-shaped coronet is her signature ornament signifying the Mercury. Sitting in composure, the lady, with one hand holding a brush and the other seizing a roll of paper, seems to be trying to figure out what to write. Beside her stands a lovely monkey, raising its arms to support an ink stone for the goddess to dip the brush in. The liveliness exuded by the little monkey poses an interesting contrast to the calm and poise of the lady. The texture of the drapable garments of the goddess was perfectly presented by the flowing brushwork full of tension on the original painting, on which a sense of rhythm was also achieved by the flexible arrangement of lines, densely or loosely, contingent on the subjects.
Regarding this embroidery piece, fine-thread plain embroidery was applied to the goddess, with even more meticulous illustration on positions such as the drapes of garments and the lower area beneath the right knee via densely-arranged short yet powerful stitches full of changes, constituting a sharp contrast to the curvy long lines on sleeves or side waist. On the contrary to the crowded stitches on garment, a much looser allocation of stitches can be seen on face, hair and hair adornments, making the image dynamic. The monkey in the corner was realized via random stitches with super thin and super light silk flosses, which is a totally different technique with that applied on the lady. But the monkey created in this way is filled with vitality, even its hair seems to be flowing with wind. Thanks to the vivid shaping, the freely-flowing lines, and the embroidery techniques that coordinate in a harmonious way, this needlework exudes a strong sense of rhythmic movements.