Description
This is one of two paintings possibly by Sesshū Tōyō. They once flanked a central scroll with an ink landscape. The unbalanced nature of the compositions, however, suggests they may be images recycled from larger paintings. The one with sweet osmanthus and hibiscus is an autumn scene, the other is a summer scene with daylilies and gardenias. Folding screens often contrast two seasons or depict all four across a single pair of screens. Sesshū’s works were sufficiently prized that repurposing them in fragmentary form to display in an alcove of a luxurious room would not be an unusual choice.
Provenance
Mrs. A. Dean Perry [Helen Wade Greene Perry] [1911-1996], Cleveland, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art (?-1964); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1964-)
Accession Number
1964.157.1
Medium
Hanging scroll from a triptych; ink and color on silk
Dimensions
Image: 55.9 x 53.4 cm (22 x 21 in.); Overall: 117 x 58 cm (46 1/16 x 22 13/16 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry
Tags
Painting Renaissance (1400–1599) Ink Silk Painting Japanese Color: Gold
Background & Context
Background Story
Sesshu Toyo (1420-1506) was a Japanese Zen Buddhist monk and painter known as the most important Japanese landscape painter of the Muromachi period, whose ink landscapes combine the Chinese landscape tradition with a distinctly Japanese strength and simplicity. Birds and Flowers from the mid-1400s to early 1500s depicts birds and flowers in the ink manner that Sesshu developed from his study of Chinese Song dynasty landscape painting during his travels in China. The birds and flowers subject shows Sesshu's ability to combine the Chinese ink tradition with Japanese simplicity, creating a type of painting that is simultaneously Chinese in technique and Japanese in feeling.
Cultural Impact
Birds and Flowers by Sesshu is important in the history of Japanese painting because it demonstrates the combination of Chinese technique and Japanese feeling that Sesshu developed from his study of Song dynasty landscape painting in China. Sesshu's transformation of the Chinese ink landscape tradition—making it stronger and simpler, more Japanese—represents one of the most important developments in the history of Japanese painting, and Birds and Flowers shows this transformation in the traditional subject of birds and flowers.
Why It Matters
Birds and Flowers is Sesshu combining Chinese technique with Japanese simplicity: the traditional subject rendered in the ink manner that he developed from his study of Song dynasty painting in China. The mid-1400s to early 1500s painting shows the most important Japanese landscape painter of the Muromachi period applying his transformative vision to a traditional subject.
