- Gallery Text
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Sansetsu belonged to the Kyoto Kano, a lineage barred from serving the Tokugawa shoguns in Edo because the studio head had served a rival warlord. Sansetsu’s distinctive mannerist style is exemplified in these enormous, uncanny landscapes that tell two classical Chinese tales of eccentricity. At right, a monk, dwarfed by the mountainous setting, stands before a gate, his hand raised as if he might knock or even enter. Instead, he stands with his back to the building and only smiles. The left screen depicts the story of the scholar Wang Ziyou, who spontaneously boarded a boat one night to visit a friend. By the time he reached his destination, however, the impulse had passed, so Wang turned around and went home without so much as a word to the person he had set off to meet.
- Identification and Creation
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- Object Number
- TL41799.12
- People
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Kano Sansetsu, Japanese (Hizen province 1590 - 1651)
- Title
- A Visit to Li Ning’s Secluded Dwelling and Wang Ziyou Visiting Dai Andao
- Classification
- Paintings
- Work Type
- screen, painting
- Date
- mid 17th century
- Places
- Creation Place: East Asia, Japan
- Period
- Edo period, 1615-1868
- Culture
- Japanese
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/340537
- Physical Descriptions
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- Medium
- Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink and gold on paper
- Dimensions
- each screen, painting proper: H. 153.1 × W. 360.4 cm (60 1/4 × 141 7/8 in.)
each screen, overall with mount: H. 169.3 × W. 377.8 cm (66 5/8 × 148 3/4 in.) - Inscriptions and Marks
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- inscription: Sansetsu
- seal: Sansetsu
- Acquisition and Rights
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- Credit Line
- Promised gift of Robert S. and Betsy G. Feinberg
- Object Number
- TL41799.12
- Division
- Asian and Mediterranean Art
- Contact
- am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
- The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.
- Descriptions
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- Commentary
- Right screen: "A Visit to Li Ning’s Secluded Dwelling"
Left screen: "Wang Ziyou Visiting Dai Andao"
- Publication History
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Yamato Bunkakan, ed., Kano Sansetsu : senkyo e no sasoi, exh. cat. (Nara, Japan, 1986), seal published, p. 96 no. 4
The Flowering of Edo Period Painting: Japanese Masterworks from the Feinberg Collection, exh. cat., Yomiuri Shinbunsha (Tokyo, 2013), pp. 126-127, cat. 58
Rachel Saunders, "Painting Edo: Japanese Art from the Feinberg Collection", Orientations, Orientations Magazine (Hong Kong, January/February 2020), vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 20-33, pp. 22-23, figs. 3a and b
Rachel Saunders and Yukio Lippit, Painting Edo: Selections from the Feinberg Collection of Japanese Art, exh. cat. (Cambridge, MA, 2020), pp. 24-26, figs. 9-10
- Exhibition History
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The Flowering of Edo Period Painting: Japanese Masterworks from the Feinberg Collection, Tokyo Metropolitan Edo-Tokyo Museum, 05/21/2013 - 07/15/2013; Miho Museum, 07/20/2013 - 08/18/2013; Tottori Prefectural Museum, 10/05/2013 - 11/10/2013
32Q: 2600 East Asian, Japanese, Chinese and Korean, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 12/07/2017 - 06/01/2018
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This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
