two pink lions at lower center, one is turned outward looking up at viewer, while the other is turned away; lions are standing next to two palm trees, one of which is bearing coconuts; grapevine winds around the two trunks at R; plant with large, vibrant red blossoms in foreground at L; rhinoceros is drinking out of a river in background

Lions, 1830s

Kano Sōtokuexpand_more

Ink and color on silkexpand_more

Gift of the Clark Center for Japanese Art & Cultureexpand_more  2013.29.5

Not on Viewexpand_more

Two lions roam a tropical landscape, framed by a coconut tree and strange red and purple flowers. In the background, a rhinoceros lingers by the water. Even while communication and trade between the rest of the world and Japan was highly restricted, the Japanese were eager to learn about life beyond the seas. Dutch traders brought Western publications, such as Johann Jonston’s Historiae naturalis de quadrupedibus libri (1650), to Japan. Printed, translated versions of the books were disseminated through Japanese publishers and became popular among artists, who often used illustrations in Western books as models for paintings and drawings. While we do not know the source of the lions, the rhinoceros’s source is clear. Though small in scale, the creature resembles that of German painter and printmaker Albrecht Dürer’s woodcut from 1515. Dürer never saw a real rhinoceros; instead, he based his illustration on written descriptions. The image was reproduced repeatedly within Europe in prints and books, including Jonston’s Historiae naturalis. First presented as a gift to the fourth shogun, Tokugawa Ietsuna, in 1663, Historiae naturalis was kept in the library until the eighth shogun, Yoshimune, rediscovered it.

Enea Vico
Italian, 1523–1567
16th century
Rhinoceros, 1548
Engraving
The William M. Ladd Collection
Gift of Herschel V. Jones, 1916 P.468

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Details
Title
Lions
Artist Life
active around 1833
Role
Artist
Accession Number
2013.29.5
Curator Approved

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two pink lions at lower center, one is turned outward looking up at viewer, while the other is turned away; lions are standing next to two palm trees, one of which is bearing coconuts; grapevine winds around the two trunks at R; plant with large, vibrant red blossoms in foreground at L; rhinoceros is drinking out of a river in background

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