Landscape with flowering vines

Historical period(s)
Momoyama or Edo period, early 17th century
Medium
Ink, color, and gold on paper
Dimensions
H x W: 155 x 358.6 cm (61 x 141 3/16 in)
Geography
Japan
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1903.241
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Painting
Type

Screen (six-panel)

Keywords
Edo period (1615 - 1868), Japan, Momoyama period (1573 - 1615)
Provenance

Yokoyama Bingo [1]

To 1903
Yamanaka & Company, to 1903 [2]

From 1903 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Yamanaka & Company in 1903 [3]

From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [4]

Notes:

[1] According to a note from Original Screen List (see Curatorial Remark 3 in the object record).

[2] Undated folder sheet note. See Original Screen List, L. 85, pg. 23, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. The majority of Charles Lang Freer’s purchases from Yamanaka & Company were made at its New York branch. Yamanaka & Company maintained branch offices, at various times, in Boston, Chicago, London, Peking, Shanghai, Osaka, Nara, and Kyoto. During the summer, the company also maintained seasonal locations in Newport, Bar Harbor, and Atlantic City.

[3] See note 2.

[4] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Yokoyama Bingo
Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919
Yamanaka and Co. (C.L. Freer source) 1917-1965

Label

The graceful curves of trailing vines—bottle gourd (yugao) and morning glory—dominate this landscape scene. The roof of a small thatched hut appears at the lower left. Gold leaf and particles are extensively applied to depict land banks and clouds; stylized waves painted with silver pigment have darkened with age. The extensive use of gold in large-format Japanese paintings such as folding screens and the sliding panels that form the movable “walls” of rooms in elite traditional residences was not merely decorative in intent. Gold reflected
the limited indirect daylight or flickering lamplight and imparted a translucent quality to the clouds and mists in landscapes. In addition, some art historians have suggested that the gold in Japanese screen landscapes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries refers indirectly to paradise scenes in Buddhist art.

Collection Area(s)
Japanese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)

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