四季花草図屏風|Flowers and Grasses of the Four Seasons

Kano Mitsunobu 狩野光信

late 16th century · Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, gold paint, and gold leaf on paper · Asian Art

In this lyrical variation of the common theme of Flowers and Birds of the Four Seasons, delicately rendered insects such as dragonflies, butterflies, and praying mantises hover among kerria roses, peonies, chrysanthemums, bush clover, and snow-dusted lantern flowers. Scallop-edged golden clouds and the graceful arcs of eulalia grasses form repeating, rhythmic patterns. The treatment of pictorial elements is consistent with the gentle, elegant painting style of Kano Mitsunobu, whose works graced a number of Kyoto palaces and temples. Parallels can also be drawn to lacquer decoration at the mausoleum of warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi in Kyoto’s Kōdaiji Temple. The lacquered and maki-e–decorated panels, associated with the Kōami school of Kyoto lacquer artisans, display repeating autumn grasses resembling motifs in Mitsunobu’s paintings and this pair of screens.

Artist

Kano Mitsunobu 狩野光信

Date

late 16th century

Medium

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

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, 2015