Temple in the Mountains
Kanō School
Description
This painting depicts an imaginary scene in south China, the home of the great monasteries where several influential Japanese Zen monks studied in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The composition is a well-established type: a complex of temple buildings is tucked into a mountainside, on the shore of a broad body of water, with mists rising to obscure the distant peaks. This artist provides a path leading from the viewer’s space to the temple. Two travelers go before us, a hooded figure riding a donkey over a rustic bridge, and another man striding along on foot, further ahead. The temple buildings themselves are hidden behind thick foliage, as if protected from the secular world.
LIke UMMA 1955/1.264, this painting also bears a false seal of Shûbun, one of Japan's most admired landscape painters of the fifteenth century; but in this case, the stype departs radically from the elusive, dreamy quality we associate with Shûbun today. Here the forms of the rocky outcroppings, the trees, and even the mountains are starkly outlined, and there are strong contrasts of light and dark. These features suggest that this is a work of by a professional Kanô School artist, probably of the seventeenth century.
Arts of Zen, February 15-June 15, 2003
M. Graybill, Senior Curator of Asian Art
---
This painting depicts an imaginary scene in south China, the home of the great Zen monasteries where several influential Japanese monks studied in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The composition is a well-established type: a complex of temple buildings is tucked into a mountainside, on the shore of a broad body of water, with mists rising to obscure the distant peaks. This artist provides a path leading from the viewer’s space to the temple. The temple buildings themselves are hidden behind thick foliage, as if protected from the secular world.
This painting also bears a false seal of Shûbun, one of Japan’s most admired landscape painters of the fifteenth century; but in this case, the type departs radically from the elusive, dreamy quality we associate with Shûbun today. Here the forms of the rocky outcroppings, the trees, and even the mountains are starkly outlined, and there are strong contrasts of light and dark. These features suggest that this is a work by a professional Kanô School artist, probably of the seventeenth century.
(6/28/10)
(Japanese Gallery Rotation, Spring 2010)
Subject Matter:
This painting depicts an imaginary scene in south China, the home of the great monasteries where several influential Japanese Zen monks studied in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This painting also bears a false seal of Shûbun, one of Japan's most admired landscape painters of the fifteenth century; but in this case, the type departs radically from the elusive, dreamy quality we associate with Shûbun today.
Physical Description:
The composition is a well-established type: a complex of temple buildings is tucked into a mountainside, on the shore of a broad body of water, with mists rising to obscure the distant peaks. The artist provides a path leading from the viewer’s space to the temple. Two travelers go before us, a hooded figure riding a donkey over a rustic bridge, and another man striding along on foot, further ahead. The temple buildings themselves are hidden behind thick foliage, as if protected from the secular world.Here the forms of the rocky outcroppings, the trees, and even the mountains are starkly outlined, and there are strong contrasts of light and dark. These features suggest that this is a work of by a professional Kanô School artist, probably of the seventeenth century.
Usage Rights:
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit https://umma.umich.edu/request-image/ for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.