Provenance
(R. Hosomi, Osaka, Japan, sold to Mr. and Mrs. Kelvin Smith) (?–1973); The Kelvin Smith Collection, Cleveland, OH, given by Mrs. Kelvin [Eleanor Armstrong] Smith [1899–1998] to the Cleveland Museum of Art (1973–1985); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1985–)
Accession Number
1985.279.2
Medium
One of a pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, gold, and gold leaf on paper
Dimensions
Overall: 51.1 x 208.9 cm (20 1/8 x 82 1/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith
Tags
Painting Baroque (1600–1750) Ink Panel Painting Gold Leaf Paper
Background & Context
Background Story
Festival Scenes from the 1600s depicts festival scenes in the richly colored, narrative manner of the Japanese painting tradition. Festival scenes were one of the most important subjects in Japanese painting, representing the communal celebrations and seasonal rituals that were central to Japanese cultural life, and paintings depicting them represent one of the most accomplished traditions in Japanese painting. The 1600s date places this in the early Edo period, when paintings of festival scenes were being produced by some of the most accomplished painters of the Japanese tradition.
Cultural Impact
Festival Scenes is important in the history of Japanese painting because it demonstrates the richly colored, narrative manner of the Japanese painting tradition as applied to one of the most important subjects in Japanese cultural life. Festival scenes—representing the communal celebrations and seasonal rituals central to Japanese cultural life—were one of the most important subjects in Japanese painting, and the 1600s painting shows this tradition at its most richly colored and narrative.
Why It Matters
Festival Scenes is an anonymous early Edo period painting: festival scenes rendered in the richly colored, narrative manner of the Japanese painting tradition. The 1600s painting shows the communal celebrations and seasonal rituals central to Japanese cultural life.
