Jakuchū Picture Album (Jakuchū gajō : [volume 1] 若冲画帖 1900

Here is the audio guide script about Ito Jakuchu's Picture Album, volume 1, made in Japan in the 18th century. In this striking image, we see two distinct scenes connected through their stark monochrome palette, each revealing a world teeming with life. On the right, a frog leaps dynamically towards a lotus leaf, a symbol of purity and enlightenment in Buddhist traditions. But this isn't just about religious symbolism. The lotus and the frog, recurring motifs in Eastern art, encapsulate deeper cultural meanings, representing harmony and the cycle of life. Consider the frog's evolution in art; from ancient Egyptian amulets symbolizing fertility and rebirth, to its appearance in Dutch Golden Age paintings, often signifying transience. It's a visual echo across time. The emotion that this image evokes comes from these universal symbols that evoke our subconscious feelings about transformation and life's ephemeral nature. The symbolic language of the natural world connects us through time, resurfacing, and evolving in each culture's unique visual vocabulary. This work reminds us that symbols are never static, they travel through time, accumulating layers of meaning with each new context.