- XIX

P-0256

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 29.7; Larghezza: 59; Varie: Altezza montatura: 93 cm
Larghezza montatura: 62.9 cm

inchiostro e colori su carta

La Rinascita della Pittura Giapponese. Vent'anni di restauri al Museo Chiossone di Genova - Genova, Museo d'Arte Orientale Edoardo Chiossone - 28/02 - 29/06 2014

The work is attributed to Katsushika Ōi, daughter of the very famous artist Katsushika Hokusai. Katsushika Ōi's works are distinguished by elements of innovation compared to tradition, which were characterized by stylized figures and flat colors: here, on the contrary, there is the use of plays of light and shadow, experimentation with Western perspective and the dynamism of the scenes, given by the curved shape of the figures and the unusual decision to represent one of the musicians not facing the viewer but with the back turned, giving even more naturalness and depth to the scene. Like the majority of Ōi's works, the painting is not signed but the technique, the pictorial quality and the peculiar chiaroscuro make its attribution to the painter certain. Painting with an unclassified mount consisting of a single hanging of canneté silk with designs of peonies brocaded in silver; red border with gold designs surrounding the painting; jikushu in wood and red lacquer streaked with black Negoronuri type. A trio of female musicians sits in an interior, performing a sankyoku concert of traditional music, a Japanese ensemble musical genre composed of the instrumental trio kokyū, koto and shamisen. The room is pervaded by an evocative gloom and illuminated by an invisible light source that casts gleams on the instruments, bodies and powdered faces of the musicians. Engrossed in the music, the kokyū player, on the left, holds her face tilted and smiles: she wears a light blue kimono dotted with stylised plum blossoms over a scarlet slip. The shamisen player on the right, probably a mature geisha, wears a sober dress with white, gray, and black checks. The high-ranking courtesan playing the koto at the center of the scene is seen from behind, her fingers moving deftly over the strings. The wide skirts of her robe and obi are immersed in shadow in the foreground. The light falls on the right side of the figure, passing through the numerous pins threaded radially through her updo.