Bay 山水 | Kanō Motonobu attr. 狩野元信（伝）| 1476-1559

Kanō Motonobu is the second head of the Kanō school in the genealogy. It is thanks to his genius that he took over the legacy of his father Masanobu, who was still completely committed to the priestly painting tradition, and transformed it into a well-organized art institution. Every now and then you can still find works from his workshop on the market today, as his production was certainly much more extensive than that of his father.  

This painting has no signature (which is not unusual for 16th century paintings), but it does have a stamp, although it is illegible. The subject of a seascape with ships and a jetty on which people can be seen is a familiar motif of this period.

The silk has darkened considerably overall, but the painting is still well articulated. The picture is mounted very tightly on the sides, which indicates the great age of the mount. The yellowish brocade border with the peony motif ( chūmawashi ) was - because it is valuable - assembled from several individual pieces, and the upper and lower green sections ( jōge ) with their stylized, classical cloud pattern have clearly been repaired.

The whole ensemble appears harmonious as an integral witness to a 500-year-old art and has therefore not been restored. One must be able to accept this work of art as a whole (with its flaws), as no intervention can make its charisma and atmosphere more authentic than it is.