Watanabe Shiko (Japanese, 1683-1755). Irises (detail), Edo period. Ink and color on gold ground paper, 334.3 cm wide.

Watanabe Shiko holds an important place in the development of painting in 18th century Japan. In reshaping the pictorial conventions of the past, he emphasized visual reality, which became one of the dominant trends in Japanese art. The pair of six-fold screens, of which this detail is part, presents a panoramic view of a marsh abloom with irises. The screens are unique in Shiko's paintings in that they focus on a single species rather than a comprehensive array of flowers. The artist has captured the nuances of the growth cycle of the iris, painting tightly closed buds, flowers with petals still slightly folded, flowers showing the first signs of decay. Short blades of grass uniformly painted in shades of green highlighted with delicate gold veins and rich blue flowers float hypnotically across the picture surface. There is no ground plane anchoring this lush vegetation, no single focus point, no place for the eye to rest. Portable partitions like these screens were not intended to be seen flat, but free-standing in a zigzag manner. Such a position presents them as a series of facets, each in a slightly different light.

The Cleveland Museum of Art, gift of the Norweb Foundation, 54.603, 54.604