Edo Painting

HAA 188P Subject & Catalog Number

Description

This seminar explores the history of painting during Japan’s Edo period (1615-1868). This semester’s iteration of the course focuses on the life and work of Maruyama Okyo (1733-1795), the Edo period’s most popular painter. Each week, through close examinations of Okyo’s paintings, students will become familiarized to the techniques, formats, materials, pictorial styles, and subject matter of Japanese painting. Working outward from these case studies, students will also explore larger cultural themes concerning the city of Kyoto, Japanese aesthetics and symbolism, print culture, the status of the artist, patronage, antiquarianism, and interregionalism. Special emphasis will be placed on how one understands the concept of “naturalism” in Japanese art, especially given that there was no word for “Nature” in premodern Japan. Several group excursions to Harvard Art Museums will be organized throughout the semester.