Wang Ziyou Visiting Dai Andao on a Snowy Evening (Ō Shiyū hō Tai Andō zu)
According to a story recorded in a fifth-century Chinese compilation of tales, the poet-calligrapher Wang Ziyou (321–379), traveled by boat to visit his friend Dai Andao on a snowy night. However, once he reached his destination, Wang turned around and went home without actually seeing his friend, having fulfilled his interest in taking the trip. In this pristine and spartan scene of snow and distant mountains, in which empty space adds as much atmosphere as the pictorial elements, the poet is a diminutive element in the face of the vastness of the winter landscape.
A major Kano-school artist of the early Edo period, Sansetsu produced a number of paintings on Chinese themes in ink monochrome, but he could also work in a manner that combined aspects of ink painting with the decorative, colorful, gold-enriched mode developed by the Kano atelier in the Momoyama period (1573–1615). This starkly evocative landscape, with clearly defined, crystalline rocks often found in his compositions, belongs to the first of these two styles.
A major Kano-school artist of the early Edo period, Sansetsu produced a number of paintings on Chinese themes in ink monochrome, but he could also work in a manner that combined aspects of ink painting with the decorative, colorful, gold-enriched mode developed by the Kano atelier in the Momoyama period (1573–1615). This starkly evocative landscape, with clearly defined, crystalline rocks often found in his compositions, belongs to the first of these two styles.
Artwork Details
- 狩野山雪筆 王子猷訪戴安道図
- Title: Wang Ziyou Visiting Dai Andao on a Snowy Evening (Ō Shiyū hō Tai Andō zu)
- Artist: Kano Sansetsu (Japanese, 1590–1651)
- Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
- Date: mid-17th century
- Culture: Japan
- Medium: Two-panel folding screen; ink and gold on paper
- Dimensions: Image: 61 3/16 × 67 11/16 in. (155.4 × 172 cm)
Overall with mounting: 67 1/2 × 74 7/16 in. (171.5 × 189 cm) - Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection, Gift of Mary and Cheney Cowles, 2019
- Object Number: 2019.420.15
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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Kano Sansetsu
second quarter 17th century
Returned to lender
Kano Sansetsu
ca. 1636–47
Kano Sansetsu
1646
Japan
early 17th century
Maruyama Ōkyo 円山応挙
right screen: 1774; left screen: 1793
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