Exquisite hanging scrolls and gilded freestanding screens reveal a keen sensitivity to the change of seasons as witnessed by Japanese artists during past centuries. A 14th-century Zen monk painted ink on silk to capture geese pecking in reedy waters; another flock forms a chevron in the steely sky above, suggesting that imperceptible moment when the weather changes and migration commences. A painting from 1750 of bamboo covered with snow contrasts white, unpainted paper with sharp black triangles representing leaves—the scene conveys a muffled, contemplative quiet. An adjoining scroll features three herons, two with heads tucked against the winter cold, the third craning its neck, the artist's quick but precise strokes capturing the frozen concentration of a remorseless hunter. A 17th-century six-panel screen portrays a full moon rising behind crisscrossed green grass and ocher fall flowers: The silver moon has transmuted to tarnished gray, but there's a sense of the coming harvest in... More >>>