Sōami was the last of three generations of painters and connoisseurs (Nōami, Geiami, Sōami) who served as artistic advisers to the Ashikaga shoguns in Kyoto. Like other ink painters of his time, the artist took Chinese landscapes—often rendered on small album leaves—as inspiration for large-scale, panoramic screens and sliding doors that set a contemplative mood in the mansions and temples of the capital. These screens refer to the landscape of southern China, probably known to the artist through a handscroll prized by the Ashikaga shoguns, Eight Views of Xiao and Xiang, painted by Muqi, a thirteenth-century Chinese monk-painter.
Vignettes of daily life are here unified into a monumental ink landscape showing the progression of the four seasons, beginning with misty spring at far right and ending with wintry, snow-covered rooftops at far left. In this, Sōami conformed to a long-standing preference in Japanese interior decoration for seasonal imagery, which was rooted in the art and poetry of the Heian period (794–1185).
#8855. Landscape of the Four Seasons (Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers)
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相阿弥筆 四季山水図 （瀟湘八景）
Title:Landscape of the Four Seasons (Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers)
Artist:Sōami (Japanese, died 1525)
Period:Muromachi period (1392–1573)
Date:early 16th century
Culture:Japan
Medium:Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink on paper
Dimensions:each: 68 1/4 in. × 12 ft. 2 in. (173.4 × 370.8 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of John D. Rockefeller Jr., 1941
Object Number:41.59.1, .2
Signature: Kangaku Shinsō hitsu; also seal
Marking:
[ Tokyo Art Club , Works from Old Family Collections, April 7, 1913, lot 122]; [ Murai Family , Tokyo (1913–until 1927; sold at Tokyo Art Club]; [ Tokyo Art Club , sale "Painting, Calligraphy, and Utensils from the Murai Family", September 26, 1927, lot 110]; John D. Rockefeller Jr. American, New York (after 1927–1941; donated to MMA)
New York. Asia House Gallery. "Byōbu: Japanese Screens from New York Collections," January 14, 1971–March 14, 1971.
Princeton University Art Museum. "Japanese Ink Painting: The Muromachi Period," April 24, 1976–June 13, 1976.
Tokyo. The Museum Interchange Subcommittee of the US-Japan. "Exhibition of Masterpieces, East and West and from American Collections," September 10, 1976–October 17, 1976.
Kyoto National Museum. "Exhibition of Masterpieces, East and West and from American Collections," November 1, 1976–December 5, 1976.
Tokyo. Asahi Shinbun. "Screen Paintings of the Muromachi Period," March 28, 1989–May 7, 1989.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Seasonal Pleasures in Japanese Art (Part One)," October 12, 1995–April 28, 1996.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "No Ordinary Mortals: The Human and Not-So-Human Figure in Japanese Art," November 1, 1996–October 5, 1997.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Resonant Image: Tradition in Japanese Art (Part Two)," April 27–September 27, 1998.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art in Early Japan," 1999–2000.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "A Sense of Place: Landscape in Japanese Art," May 8–September 8, 2002.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan II," March 22–September 21, 2003.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Tribute to a Dedicated Collector: Mary Griggs Burke," June 30–November 29, 2004.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "A Sensitivity to the Seasons: Spring and Summer," December 17, 2005–June 4, 2006.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Poetry and Travel in Japanese Art," December 18, 2008–May 31, 2009.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Brush Writing in the Arts of Japan," August 17, 2013–January 12, 2014.
Seoul. National Museum of Korea. "Landscapes: Seeking the Ideal World," July 22, 2014–September 21, 2014.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Kyoto: Capital of Artistic Imagination," July 24, 2019–January 31, 2021.
Mayuyama Jun'kichi, ed. Japanese Art in the West. Tokyo: Mayuyama & Co., Ltd., 1966, p. 149, cat. no. 169B.
Akiyama Terukazu, Shimada Shūjirō, and Yamane Yūzō, eds. Zaigai Nihon no shihō (Japanese Art: Selections from Western Collections): Suibokuga (Ink Painting) vol. 3, Tokyo: Mainichi Shinbunsha, 1979, pls. 67–71.
Tokyo Kokuritsu Bunkazai Kenkyūjo 東京国立文化財研究所, ed. Nyūyōku Metoroporitan Bijutsukan, kaiga, chōkoku ニューヨークメトロポリタン美術館，絵画・彫刻 (Painting and sculpture of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) Kaigai shozai Nihon bijutsuhin chōsa hōkoku 海外所在日本美術品調查報告 (Catalogue of Japanese art in foreign collections) 1. Tokyo: Kobunkazai Kagaku Kenkyūkai, 1991, p. 29, cat. no. 83.2.
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