Birds and Flowers (mid-1400s–early 1500s): Art, History and Details

Birds and Flowers (mid-1400s–early 1500s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Sesshū Tōyō (Japanese, 1420–1506).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This is one of two paintings possibly by Sesshū Tōyō. They once flanked a central scroll with an ink landscape. The unbalanced nature of the compositions, however, suggests they may be images recycled from larger paintings. The one with sweet osmanthus and hibiscus is an autumn scene, the other is a summer scene with daylilies and gardenias. Folding screens often contrast two seasons or depict all four across a single pair of screens. Sesshū’s works were sufficiently prized that repurposing them in fragmentary form to display in an alcove of a luxurious room would not be an unusual choice.

Object facts

• Title: Birds and Flowers
• Date: mid-1400s–early 1500s
• Creator attribution: Sesshū Tōyō (Japanese, 1420–1506)
• Culture: Japan, Muromachi period (1392–1573)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Hanging scroll from a triptych; ink and color on silk
• Dimensions: Image: 55.9 x 53.4 cm (22 x 21 in.); Overall: 117 x 58 cm (46 1/16 x 22 13/16 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1964.157.2

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.