JAPANESE ART > UKIYO-E WOODBLOCK PRINTS > BREASTFEEDING MADAME ZHANGSUN

Lot 00558
N.1 ukiyo-e woodblock print

Toyohara Chikanobu

BREASTFEEDING MADAME ZHANGSUN

Year: 1890
Condition: very good
Size: 24,5 x 36,5 cm

SOLD

Fascinating woodblock print inspired by the classic text of the Confucian tradition entitled "The Twenty-four Filial Exemplars" (二十四孝), written by Guo Jujing (郭居敬) during the period of the Yuan dynasty (元朝). In the upper inset we see the generous Madame Tang (唐夫人), grandmother of the future governor Cui Shannan (隺山南) visible as a child behind her back, who breastfed for years her mother-in-law Madame Zhangsun (长孙夫人), since she was very old and had already lost all her teeth.

In the lower part of the work, instead, Toyohara Chikanobu (豊原周延) depicts a mother attracting a baby to nurse him. The setting of the two scenes is a porch open to the garden and, in both images, there is a third person observing how maternal love takes care, from childhood to old age, of the well-being of the whole family.

The work, taken from the series "Collection of Twenty-four Exemplary Images of Filial Piety" (二十四孝見立画合), entitled "Cui Shannan" (隺山南) and printed in August 1890 by the publisher Hasegawa Tsunejiro (長谷川常治郎) and by the engraver Hori Asa (彫朝), despite the right signs of aging is in very good condition.

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