Artwork
Untitled
Untitled is an ink painting. It dates from 1650 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
Through these visual cues, the album conveys the cultural resonance of Genji's legacy in seventeenth-century Japanese visual culture.
The leaves depict scenes from The Tale of Genji, the classical Japanese literary work by Murasaki Shikibu. A recurring motif is the interior setting, where figures are shown engaged in courtly activities or intimate exchanges, underscoring the narrative's focus on emotional subtleties and social refinement. The presence of a horse in one leaf suggests travel or a journey, a device used in the tale to mark transitions between episodes.
The figures, men and women, are portrayed with restrained gestures and facial expressions, aligning with the story's emphasis on psychological nuance and the fleeting nature of human connections. Through these visual cues, the album conveys the cultural resonance of Genji's legacy in seventeenth-century Japanese visual culture.
Technique & Style
Untitled is an album of twelve leaves executed in ink and color on gold-flecked paper, a technique that combines translucent washes with opaque pigments on a luminous support. The work belongs to the genre painting tradition, illustrating scenes from The Tale of Genji that feature figures in an interior setting accompanied by a horse. The handling of ink defines line and detail, while the applied color provides subtle tonal variation across the leaves.
As a mid-17th-century Japanese work, its formal qualities emphasize narrative clarity and decorative richness derived from the metallic paper ground.
History & Provenance
The work titled Untitled is an anonymous Japanese painting created around 1650, executed in ink and color on gold-flecked paper as part of a twelve-leaf album. Its subjects include a horse, an interior scene, men and women, and references to The Tale of Genji. It was produced in Japan by an unknown artist and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, classified as a genre painting.
The available sources confirm the institution's possession of the work but do not list a specific accession number or a detailed exhibition history.
Overview
This untitled album comprises twelve individual paintings, rendered in ink and color on paper speckled with gold. Each leaf presents a distinct scene, depicting figures, animals, or landscapes. The vibrant palette and the distinctive gold-flecked ground characterize these works, which uniquely fuse visual traditions from Japan with elements of Mexican artistic expression, offering a rich cross-cultural dialogue.
Artist & collection
- Scenes from The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari)
Scenes from the Nakamura Kabuki Theater
Scenes at the University with Images of the Ancient Sages; Debate and Banquet at the Administration Offices
Genre Scenes (Fuzoku byobu)
Horse Racing at Kamo Shrine
Arrival of the Europeans
Women’s Kabuki
Fifty-Four Scenes from The Tale of Genji
Scenes from the Tale of Genji
Scenes from the Tale of Genji
Bugaku Dancers
Scenes from the Tales of Ise
