Dimensions: 32 5/8 × 18 3/16 in. (82.87 × 46.2 cm) (image)67 1/2 × 23 3/16 in. (171.45 × 58.9 cm) (mount, without roller )
Copyright: Public Domain
Geiai painted Sparrows among Millet and Asters in ink on paper in sixteenth-century Japan. Here, in the Momoyama period, we see a continuation of the earlier Muromachi era's interest in the natural world, but inflected by the changing social and institutional contexts of art production. The monochrome ink painting creates a visual language rooted in Chan Buddhism. Absence and suggestion are prioritized over realism and explicit representation. The aristocracy and the monasteries had been the main patrons of the arts. However, by this time, a new merchant class had risen to prominence and they began to commission artworks reflecting their own values and tastes. Sparrows and plants represent the seasons, the natural cycle of growth and decay, and the interconnectedness of all things. This work does not overtly critique existing institutions. Yet, the focus on seemingly humble subjects may reflect the changing social landscape of the time. The painting provides an avenue for exploring the relationship between art, patronage, and social change in sixteenth-century Japan. It is an example of the contingent nature of art and its reliance on social and institutional contexts.
Comments
In this lively autumnal scene, five sparrows romp and bicker near millet and blooming asters. The artist Geiai used almost no contour lines in this work, which is quite distinct from his other painting displayed nearby, opting instead for the so-called “boneless” technique that relied on ink wash rather than lines to define the volume and mass of motifs. Little is known about the artist, who impressed a red seal reading "Geiai" at lower right. He may have been active in Kyoto at the end of the 1400s, and the handful of surviving paintings bearing his seals reveals his fluency in a number of styles of Chinese bird-and-flower painting introduced to Japan in the 1300s and 1400s.
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