Birds and Flowers
The lively depiction of birds in natural settings with seasonal trees and flowers was a favorite theme in early ink painting and a hallmark of the Kano school of painters led by Kano Motonobu (ca. 1476–1559). This rendition attributed to Motonobu's brother, Yukinobu, is in the ink-wash style inspired by the Southern Song painter Muqi (late 13th–early 14th century), which uses tonal variations of ink instead of outlines to define the soft forms of feathers and flowers.
Artwork Details
- 伝狩野之信筆 花鳥図
- Title: Birds and Flowers
- Artist: Attributed to Kano Yukinobu 狩野之信 (Japanese, ca. 1513–1575)
- Period: Muromachi period (1392–1573)
- Date: mid-16th century
- Culture: Japan
- Medium: Diptych of hanging scrolls; ink on paper
- Dimensions: 39 1/8 x 16 3/4 in. (99.4 x 42.5 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: The Howard Mansfield Collection, Purchase, Rogers Fund, 1936
- Object Number: 36.100.91, .92
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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