Page 51 - japanese and korean art Utterberg Collection Christie's March 22 2022

涅槃寂静 | THE COLLECTION OF DAVID AND NAYDA UTTERBERG (LOTs 1-20)

10
SOGA SOYO (JAPAN, ACT. 1550)
Hawk perched on a branch
Sealed Soyo
Hanging scroll; ink and light color on paper
33Ω x 17æ in. (85.1 x 45.1 cm.)
Inscription signed Ryugan-o and with two seals

$60,000-80,000
曾我宗誉筆 古木鷹図

PROVENANCE:
Leighton R. Longhi, New York, 18 Sep. 1990
LITERATURE:
Leighton R. Longhi, Forty-five Years in Asian Art (New York:
privately published, 2009), pl. 127
Little was known about Soga Soyo in the limited records on the
exceptional but diminished artist. Active until the mid-sixteenth
century, Soyo favours a solitary life and keens on depicting hawks
with power and tension constituted by a refined sensitivity to detail.

The eighth-century Chronicles of Japan (Nihon shoki) states that
the practice of hawking was introduced in the fourth century, after
which it became an important seasonal activity at court. Since the
Muromachi period (1392-1573), hawking was dominated by the
warrior elite, who saw the bird of prey as a symbol of their own
bravery and might. Imagery of hawks in their wild habitat, in cages
or tethered to stands is prevalent on hanging scrolls, screens and
sliding doors commissioned by the samurai elite.