Bamboo
Artist
Japanese
Date18th century
Mediumtwo panel screen
Dimensionsoverall: 169.9 x 185.1 cm (66 7/8 x 72 7/8 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineGift of Mrs. Frank E. Heywood
Terms
Object number1933.38
Label TextA favorite subject in the Edo period, paintings of bamboo on folding screens and sliding doors were executed by artists of different schools-Kano, Maruyama, and Nanga. This painting is attributed to an eighteenth century Kano school painter. Having produced more important painters than any other schools in the fifteenth through the seventeenth centuries the Kano school retained its high prestige, in spite of not producing any important artist of great talent after the beginning of the 18th century. As official government painters in Edo, Kyoto and Nagoya, the Kano school painters obtained most of the official painting commissions. Its artists could work in a variety of styles and depict various subjects, often repeating the solutions formulated by great masters of the late Momoyama and early Edo period.
This work was created by a "machi-Kano" (townsman Kano) who provided paintings for city dwellers and provincial officials throughout Japan. These painters numbering in the hundreds by the second half of the seventeenth century were not members of the ateliers of the family branches in service to the Tokugawa shoguns. They were distant relatives and disciples who popularized the Kano style throughout Japan. The opulent gold and color composition and powerful contour line seen on this screen were part of the standard Kano repertoire. The high level of technical competence was guaranteed both by the apprenticeship method of training and by copy-books and painting manuals passed down from one generation of Kano artists to the next. The dynamic composition, extensive use of gold and abstract design qualities reveal the unquestionable influence of the Kano style which helped shape the basic vocabulary of later Japanese painting.ProvenanceMrs. Frank E. Heywood, Worcester MAOn View
Not on view
