Italy-Japan: Florence hosts Nipponese "Renaissance"
Florence - "The Japanese Renaissance. Nature in floor paintings between the 15th and 17th century": this is the theme of the exhibition open between 3 October and 7 January, in the Magliabechiana room of the Uffizi in Florence. A unique exhibition, not just because it is the first of its kind in Europe, but also for the value and importance of the pieces on show, considered the maximum expression of Japanese art, delicate to the point that the 39 works displayed painted folding floor screens (byobu) and matching sliding doors (fusumae), are considered National Treasures and Important Cultural Assets conserved in museums, temples and by the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan. The event organized by Galleria degli Uffizi and the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan focuses on the golden era of this particular expression of Japanese art, which started in the Muromachi era and continued till the beginning of the Edo era (15th - 17th century). This is the period in which the two trends that marked the entire Japanese painting production started, creating the aesthetic ideals that we still recognize in Japanese art today: on one hand, the monochromatic and evocative painting, made of blank spaces and essential and quick lines, close to the Chinese tradition and linked to the zen philosophy embraced by the warrior class since the Kamakura era, used to decorate temples and samurai residences; on the other hand, autochthonous painting, with golden backgrounds and flat colored figures, more explicit and easier to interpret, suitable to decorate large aristocratic and bourgeois residential spaces. In the 16th century, almost exactly at the same time as European art starts to flourish the Uffizi Gallery in Florence conserves great works of art of this artistic period Japan, during the so-called Muromachi and Momoyama eras, experiences a period of art commissioning that will lead to a proper Oriental Renaissance.