|
Maruyama Okyo
Maruyama Okyo (1733-95) was the
founder in the late eighteenth century of the Maruyama-Shijo
school of naturalist painters in Kyoto. He created a style that
combined influences from several sources. Early in his career,
he studied perspective as he made prints for an optical device
that intensified the illusion of three-dimensional space in an
image. Such "optiques" were popular as entertainment
for members of the tradesman class in Kyoto at the time. Okyo
looked to Chinese prints from Suzhou province as instructional
guides; these, in turn, had been copied from Dutch copper-plate
etchings. He also worked carefully to give a close account of
nature, influenced by a "science boom" that affected
many members of the intelligentsia and scientists in the 1770s
and 1780s. Central to Okyo's process of self-training in this
new style was first-hand observation and sketching of animals
and people rather than the common practice of using paintings by
previous artists as models. Finally, he adapted and interpreted
the impressive, decorative compositions devised by members of
the Kano school, the official school of painters to the samurai
class in the Edo period (1615-1868), and the Rimpa school of
painters to nobles and wealthy merchants. Okyo's revolutionary
and independent study of the effects of light and shadow, as
well as his experiments with perspective, influenced his own
work and that of his followers.
Related Topic:
Other
Japanese Painters:
|
