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Birds and Flowers

花鳥図屏風

late 1500s

Part of a set. See all set records

Kano Shōei 狩野松栄

(Japanese, 1519-1592)

Kano Mitsunobu 狩野光信

(Japanese, 1565-1608)

Japan, Momoyama period

(1573-1615)

Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, and gold on paper

Image: 155.5 x 340 cm (61 1/4 x 133 7/8 in.)

Gift of William G. Mather 1948.128

Location

not on view

Did you know?

The inscriptions on these screens are not signatures of the artist, but instead an attribution to the painter Kano Eitoku (1543-1590) by his youngest brother, Kano Naganobu (1577–1654).

Description

Unhurried contemplation of these screens reveals that their appearance differs slightly. Notice the shapes of the rocks and pine trunks. The actual ink lines defining their contours and the many brushstrokes providing textual definition to forms and surfaces show two distinct hands at work in the late 16th-century Kyoto.

Both Kano Shōei and Kano Mitsunobu were well known throughout the country for their skills. As masters of the Kano academic painting style, they naturally favored Chinese-inspired subject matter, such as birds and flowers, rendered in emphatic ink tonalities and placed within mountainous landscape settings. As can be seen in the screen on the right, military class patrons frequently requested scenes depicting predation, such as hunting scenes that were inserted as additional subject matter in otherwise tranquil vistas celebrating flora and fauna.

Provenance

?-1948

William G. Mather [1857-1951], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art

1948-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Chiba-shi Bijutsukan. Shugyoku no Nihon bijutsu: Hosomi korekushon no zenbō to Bosuton, Kurīburando, Sakkurā no wadaisaku : kaikan isshūnen kinen. Chiba-shi: Chiba-shi Bijutsukan, 1996. Reproduced: cat. no. 81, p. 98

Cleveland Museum of Art. Tōyō kaiga no seika: Kurīvurando Bijutsukan no korekushon kara : tokubetsuten. 1998. Reproduced: pp. 120-122, cat. no. 80

Cleveland Museum of Art, and Michael R. Cunningham. Unfolding Beauty: Japanese Screens from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Reproduced: pp.18-19

Admired from afar: masterworks of Japanese painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art [クリーブランド美術館展 : 名画でたどる日本の美 Kurīburando Bijutsukan ten: meiga de tadoru Nihon no bi ]. Tokyo: Tōkyō Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan, 2014. Reproduced: cat. no. 29, pp. 90-91

Exhibition history

Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 121). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 12-July 13, 2004).

Japanese Screens from the Museum and Cleveland Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 23-May 8, 1977).

Byobu: The Art of the Japanese Screen. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 1-October 14, 1984).

Byobu: The Art of the Japanese Screen. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 8, 1987-January 10, 1988).

Autumn Grasses: Arts of the Momoyama Period (1573-1615). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 4-December 11, 1988).

Asian Autumn: Masterpieces from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 17, 1991-January 5, 1992).

The Legacy of Japanese Art. Chiba City Museum of Art (organizer) (October 1-November 10, 1996).

Highlights of Asian Paintings from The Cleveland Museum of Art. Suntory Museum of Art (April 28-June 21, 1998).

Unfolding Beauty: Japanese Screens from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (July 15-September 16, 2001).

Admired from Afar: Masterworks of Japanese Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, Japan (January 15-February 23, 2014); Kyushu National Museum, Fukuoka, Japan (July 8-August 31, 2014).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Birds and Flowers|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1948.128|author=Kano Shōei|year=late 1500s|access-date=15 January 2021|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Birds and Flowers

Birds and Flowers

花鳥図屏風

Kano Shōei 狩野松栄

Kano Mitsunobu 狩野光信

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