NYC - Metropolitan Museum of Art - The Four Accomplishments
The Four Accomplishments
Muromachi period (13921573), mid-16th century
Kano Motonobu (Japanese, 14761559)
Pair of six-panel screens; ink and color on pape
The descriptive quality of line is characteristic of Kano painting from all periods. Early works with figures in a landscape, like this pair of screens long in a daimyo family collection, are replete with the idiosyncratic life of the brush. Many of the ink conventions (for example, the "ax cut" strokes used in the rocks) are drawn from Chinese painting. Chinese themes, too, had great meaning in Muromachi culture. Four Accomplishments paintings, which allude to the gentlemanly pursuits of music, games of strategy, calligraphy, and painting, were a popular subject for abbots' quarters and audience rooms of the ruling classes from the Muromachi period into the nineteenth century.
Situated within pockets of space created by overhanging trees, rocks, and architecture, the human subjects in this painting are stately reminders of the spiritual appreciation of nature. Care has been taken to draw each scholar and each of the attendant youths naturalistically. At the same time, the brushwork has an energy independent of the subjects it represents.
Dr. and Mrs. Roger G. Gerry Collection, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Roger G. Gerry, 1991 (1991.480.1,.2)
**
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's permanent collection contains more than two million works of art from around the world. It opened its doors on February 20, 1872, housed in a building located at 681 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Under their guidance of John Taylor Johnston and George Palmer Putnam, the Met's holdings, initially consisting of a Roman stone sarcophagus and 174 mostly European paintings, quickly outgrew the available space. In 1873, occasioned by the Met's purchase of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriot antiquities, the museum decamped from Fifth Avenue and took up residence at the Douglas Mansion on West 14th Street. However, these new accommodations were temporary; after negotiations with the city of New York, the Met acquired land on the east side of Central Park, where it built its permanent home, a red-brick Gothic Revival stone "mausoleum" designed by American architects Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mold. As of 2006, the Met measures almost a quarter mile long and occupies more than two million square feet, more than 20 times the size of the original 1880 building.
In 2007, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was ranked #17 on the AIA 150 America's Favorite Architecture list.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1967. The interior was designated in 1977.
National Historic Register #86003556
NYC - Metropolitan Museum of Art - The Four Accomplishments
The Four Accomplishments
Muromachi period (13921573), mid-16th century
Kano Motonobu (Japanese, 14761559)
Pair of six-panel screens; ink and color on pape
The descriptive quality of line is characteristic of Kano painting from all periods. Early works with figures in a landscape, like this pair of screens long in a daimyo family collection, are replete with the idiosyncratic life of the brush. Many of the ink conventions (for example, the "ax cut" strokes used in the rocks) are drawn from Chinese painting. Chinese themes, too, had great meaning in Muromachi culture. Four Accomplishments paintings, which allude to the gentlemanly pursuits of music, games of strategy, calligraphy, and painting, were a popular subject for abbots' quarters and audience rooms of the ruling classes from the Muromachi period into the nineteenth century.
Situated within pockets of space created by overhanging trees, rocks, and architecture, the human subjects in this painting are stately reminders of the spiritual appreciation of nature. Care has been taken to draw each scholar and each of the attendant youths naturalistically. At the same time, the brushwork has an energy independent of the subjects it represents.
Dr. and Mrs. Roger G. Gerry Collection, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Roger G. Gerry, 1991 (1991.480.1,.2)
**
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's permanent collection contains more than two million works of art from around the world. It opened its doors on February 20, 1872, housed in a building located at 681 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Under their guidance of John Taylor Johnston and George Palmer Putnam, the Met's holdings, initially consisting of a Roman stone sarcophagus and 174 mostly European paintings, quickly outgrew the available space. In 1873, occasioned by the Met's purchase of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriot antiquities, the museum decamped from Fifth Avenue and took up residence at the Douglas Mansion on West 14th Street. However, these new accommodations were temporary; after negotiations with the city of New York, the Met acquired land on the east side of Central Park, where it built its permanent home, a red-brick Gothic Revival stone "mausoleum" designed by American architects Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mold. As of 2006, the Met measures almost a quarter mile long and occupies more than two million square feet, more than 20 times the size of the original 1880 building.
In 2007, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was ranked #17 on the AIA 150 America's Favorite Architecture list.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1967. The interior was designated in 1977.
National Historic Register #86003556