245 - AN IMPORTANT AND RARE SIX-PANEL ‘NANBAN’ BYOBU DEPICTING THE ARRIVAL OF A PORTUGUESE SHIP FOR TRADE

AN IMPORTANT AND RARE SIX-PANEL ‘NANBAN’ BYOBU DEPICTING THE ARRIVAL OF A PORTUGUESE SHIP FOR TRADE Japan, 18th-early 19th century, Edo period (1615-1868) Ink, watercolors, gouache, gold paint, and gold leaf on paper. Mounted as a six-panel folding screen within silk brocade borders and fitted with copper-alloy mounts decorated with cherry blossoms against a ring-punched ground. Finely painted with the arrival of a great Portuguese carrack, or kurofune (‘black ship’), at a Japanese port, traditionally associated in Nanban imagery with Nagasaki. The monumental three-masted vessel dominates the composition, its dark hull rising dramatically from turbulent waves while sailors climb among the rigging and furl the sails. Smaller craft crowd alongside the ship as passengers and cargo are conveyed toward shore. To the right, Portuguese merchants and missionaries gather before a Christian mission complex rendered in the architectural vocabulary of a Japanese temple, its tiled roofs, verandas, and interiors emerging through great banks of gold cloud. Missionaries in long black robes are shown among richly dressed Portuguese merchants, while within the building figures gather before a Christian altar. Throughout, the artist delights in the distinctive appearance of the foreigners, carefully recording their voluminous bombacha pantaloons, patterned garments, ruffled collars, capes, facial hair, and jewelry. The foreigners are depicted with curiosity rather than hostility. Their exotic dress and appearance are observed with remarkable attention, while the numerous small narrative details lend the scene an immediate and often humorous humanity characteristic of Nanban painting. SIZE 122 x 274 cm Provenance: With John Eskenazi, London, United Kingdom, acquired in Kyoto in the mid-1980s. A private collection in Switzerland, acquired from the above in June 1990. The Art Newspaper. Condition: Good condition with old wear. Some soiling, few stains, and flaking to pigments and gold. The reverse with signs of wear and use, particularly along the joints, which have been reinforced and repaired. Nanban byobu, literally ‘Southern Barbarian screens’, developed following the arrival of Portuguese merchants in Japan in 1543. The Portuguese established Nagasaki as the principal center of their trade from 1571, bringing Chinese silks, European goods, firearms, exotic animals, and other commodities to Japan in exchange principally for silver. Their immense ocean-going carracks, unlike anything previously seen in Japanese waters, became potent symbols of the extraordinary encounter between two distant cultures. Jesuit missionaries accompanied the Portuguese traders and established a considerable presence in Kyushu, where Christianity gained converts among both commoners and several powerful daimyo. Nanban screens consequently record not only maritime commerce but also the Christian communities that flourished alongside it. Churches and Jesuit residences frequently appear in these compositions, often rendered through familiar Japanese architectural forms, as in the present screen. Following increasingly severe restrictions on Christianity under the Tokugawa shogunate, Portuguese merchants were expelled from Japan in 1639 and direct Portuguese-Japanese trade came to an end. Auction comparison: Compare a related pair of six-panel folding screens depicting the arrival of a Portuguese ship, the disembarkation of its distinguished passengers, and the unloading of exotic goods and livestock, dated to the 17th/18th century, each 174.5 x 361 cm, at Bonhams, Fine Japanese Art, 6 November 2014, London, lot 218 (mid-estimated at GBP 100,000 or approx. EUR 167,000 converted and adjusted for inflation). The Bonhams catalogue specifically compares the composition with the celebrated early 17th-century Nanban screens in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Compare an important Nanban six-fold screen depicting the arrival of a Portuguese ship for trade, dated to the 17th century, 122 x 373 cm, at Christie's, European Courts Encounter Japan, 11 May 2015, London, lot 8 (sold for GBP 818,500 or approx. EUR 1,365,000 converted and adjusted for inflation). Due to length restriction on Drouot this entry is shortened. For full description please visit www.zacke.at.