COLLECTION NAME:
The AMICA Library
mediaCollectionId
AMICO~1~1
The AMICA Library
Collection
true
AMICA ID:
AIC_.1939.574
amicoid
AIC_.1939.574
AMICA ID
false
AMICA Library Year:
1998
aly
1998
AMICA Library Year
false
Object Type:
Prints
oty
Prints
Object Type
false
Creator Name:
Katsukawa, Shunsho
crn
Katsukawa, Shunsho
Creator Name
false
Creator Nationality:
Asian; Far East Asian; Japanese
crc
Asian; Far East Asian; Japanese
Creator Nationality
false
Creator Dates/Places:
Japanese; 1726-1792 Asia,East Asia,Japan
cdt
Japanese; 1726-1792 Asia,East Asia,Japan
Creator Dates/Places
false
Creator Name-CRT:
Katsukawa Shunsho
crt
Katsukawa Shunsho
Creator Name-CRT
false
Title:
The Chinese Immortal Seiobo (C: Xi Wang Mu)
otn
The Chinese Immortal Seiobo (C: Xi Wang Mu)
Title
false
Title Type:
preferred
ott
preferred
Title Type
false
View:
full view
rid
full view
View
false
Creation Date:
c. 1770s
oct
c. 1770s
Creation Date
false
Creation Start Date:
1770
ocs
1770
Creation Start Date
false
Creation End Date:
1779
oce
1779
Creation End Date
false
Materials and Techniques:
Woodblock print.
omd
Woodblock print.
Materials and Techniques
false
Classification Term:
Woodblock
clt
Woodblock
Classification Term
false
Creation Place:
Asia,East Asia,Japan
ocp
Asia,East Asia,Japan
Creation Place
false
Dimensions:
Chu?ban; 25.4 x 17.7 cm
met
Chu?ban; 25.4 x 17.7 cm
Dimensions
false
AMICA Contributor:
The Art Institute of Chicago
oon
The Art Institute of Chicago
AMICA Contributor
false
Owner Location:
Chicago, Illinois, USA
oop
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Owner Location
false
ID Number:
1939.574
ooa
1939.574
ID Number
false
Credit Line:
The Art Institute of Chicago, Frederick W. Gookin Collection
ooc
The Art Institute of Chicago, Frederick W. Gookin Collection
Credit Line
false
Inscriptions:
SIGNATURE: Shunsho ga
oin
SIGNATURE: Shunsho ga
Inscriptions
false
Rights:
orl
<a href="http://www.artic.edu/aic/rights/main.rights.html"target="_new">http://www.artic.edu/aic/rights/main.rights.html</a>
Rights
false
Context:
Seiobo (C: Xi Wang Mu, Queen of the West) was a female Immortal (J: sennin) who, according to Daoist lore, lived in a palace by Jewel (or Turquoise) Pond in the Konron (C: Kunlun) Mountains, where she cultivated a peach tree which bore fruit every three thousand years. To eat of this fruit was to gain immortality, and there are many early accounts of her visiting or being visited by Chinese rulers - from legendary emperors such as Shun and Yu to eminently historical ones such as Han Wu Di (156-87 BC) - and presenting them with peaches from her tree.Shunsho has meticulously created an atmosphere of exotic chinoiserie: Seiobo is shown wearing a fanciful approximation of Tang dynasty (618-906) court costume, standing on a terrace surrounded with a Chinese style railing beside Jewel Pond. One young attendant carries the Peaches of Immortality in a bowl, another a Chinese style fan on a long pole. Even the rock and tree in the background are rendered in the highly inflected ink-painting style of the Kano school, a style based originally on Chinese prototypes.Shunsho designed a series of such prints illustrating legends of Chinese Immortals, all seen through a circular window set in a black ground, with a Chinese poem in white reserve above the window. This distances the scene appropriately in both space and time: it suggests a view into a Chinese garden through the round window of a typical Chinese pavilion, and at the same time a view into the immeasurably distant past through a kind of telescope. The meticulously rendered figure of Seiobo is perfectly framed by this circular surround, her sleeve raised to her chin in that appealingly feminine gesture so often seen in Shunsho's paintings of women.The four-character couplets written above are part of a poem said to have been composed by Seiobo when she visited Emperor Mu (ca. 1000 BC) of the Zhou dynasty:Hakuun ten ni ari (White clouds are in the heavens,)michinori haruka ni toku (The journey is long and far,)sansen kore o hedachi (Mountains and rivers come between.)masa ni mata shisuru koto nashi (Surely you will not die.)Shunsho and his contemporaries Kitao Shigemasa (1739-1820) and Torii Kiyonaga (1752-1815) each produced several series of chu?ban prints featuring round or fan-shaped landscapes set in black surrounds - often sets of 'Eight Views of Lake Biwa' (Omi Hakkei) or scenes of Edo. The two Kiyonaga series of this type have been dated to 1780 and 1781 (without supporting evidence), and the dating of the Shunsho series here to 'about the 1770s' is tentative.
cxd
Seiobo (C: Xi Wang Mu, Queen of the West) was a female Immortal (J: sennin) who, according to Daoist lore, lived in a palace by Jewel (or Turquoise) Pond in the Konron (C: Kunlun) Mountains, where she cultivated a peach tree which bore fruit every three thousand years. To eat of this fruit was to gain immortality, and there are many early accounts of her visiting or being visited by Chinese rulers - from legendary emperors such as Shun and Yu to eminently historical ones such as Han Wu Di (156-87 BC) - and presenting them with peaches from her tree.Shunsho has meticulously created an atmosphere of exotic chinoiserie: Seiobo is shown wearing a fanciful approximation of Tang dynasty (618-906) court costume, standing on a terrace surrounded with a Chinese style railing beside Jewel Pond. One young attendant carries the Peaches of Immortality in a bowl, another a Chinese style fan on a long pole. Even the rock and tree in the background are rendered in the highly inflected ink-painting style of the Kano school, a style based originally on Chinese prototypes.Shunsho designed a series of such prints illustrating legends of Chinese Immortals, all seen through a circular window set in a black ground, with a Chinese poem in white reserve above the window. This distances the scene appropriately in both space and time: it suggests a view into a Chinese garden through the round window of a typical Chinese pavilion, and at the same time a view into the immeasurably distant past through a kind of telescope. The meticulously rendered figure of Seiobo is perfectly framed by this circular surround, her sleeve raised to her chin in that appealingly feminine gesture so often seen in Shunsho's paintings of women.The four-character couplets written above are part of a poem said to have been composed by Seiobo when she visited Emperor Mu (ca. 1000 BC) of the Zhou dynasty:Hakuun ten ni ari (White clouds are in the heavens,)michinori haruka ni toku (The journey is long and far,)sansen kore o hedachi (Mountains and rivers come between.)masa ni mata shisuru koto nashi (Surely you will not die.)Shunsho and his contemporaries Kitao Shigemasa (1739-1820) and Torii Kiyonaga (1752-1815) each produced several series of chu?ban prints featuring round or fan-shaped landscapes set in black surrounds - often sets of 'Eight Views of Lake Biwa' (Omi Hakkei) or scenes of Edo. The two Kiyonaga series of this type have been dated to 1780 and 1781 (without supporting evidence), and the dating of the Shunsho series here to 'about the 1770s' is tentative.
Context
false
Related Image Identifier Link:
AIC_.E19687.TIF
ril
AIC_.E19687.TIF
Related Image Identifier Link
false