Loading
Dragon and Tiger
Sesson Shukeic. 1546–56
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
In Chinese cosmology, dragons produce rain clouds. The dragon disappearing into and reemerging from clouds in this painting seems to generate rough waves in the water below, pulling it toward the sky. The shape of the foreground wave is indirectly sampled from a painting by 13th-century Chinese painter Yujian, a handscroll once owned by the Ashikaga military rulers of Japan. Sesson must have known the famous painting though copies, and made a copy of his own. Here, the wave reinforces the powerful quality of the dragon.
Show lessRead more
Download this artwork (provided by The Cleveland Museum of Art).
Learn more about this artwork.
Details
- Title: Dragon and Tiger
- Creator: Sesson Shūkei (Japanese, c. 1492–c. 1577)
- Date Created: c. 1546–56
- Physical Dimensions: Painting: 157.3 x 339 cm (61 15/16 x 133 7/16 in.); Framed: 172.3 x 354 cm (67 13/16 x 139 3/8 in.)
- Provenance: H. Mitsui; C. Satomi., (Howard Hollis and Co., Cleveland, OH, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, 1959-present
- Type: Painting
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1959.136.1
- Medium: One of a pair of six-panel folding screens; ink on paper
- Fun Fact: Sesson's dragon, winding in and out of clouds, may have taken inspiration from Chinese Ming-dynasty works in the style of 13th-century Chinese painter Chen Rong.
- Department: Japanese Art
- Culture: Japan, Muromachi period (1392–1573) to Momoyama period (1573–1615)
- Credit Line: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Collection: ASIAN - Folding screen
- Accession Number: 1959.136.1
Get the app
Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more
