Art Traditions Beyond Europe

Mary Cassatt was an American artist working in Paris. An exhibition of Japanese woodblock prints in 1890 influenced her printmaking. The Coiffure shows a woman arranging her own hair while seated before a mirror.

Cassatt drew on Japanese print design through areas of colour, patterns and line. A print by Kitagawa Utamaro in her collection was one source of inspiration. European images of women grooming also informed her work. Borrowing can involve both design and subject connections.

The Coiffure is not a woodblock print. Cassatt used metal-plate methods, including drypoint and aquatint. Distinguishing design from production helps explain what she learned from Japanese prints and what she did differently.

Matisse painted Goldfish in 1912 at his home near Paris. The fish's orange contrasts with surrounding pinks, greens and blue-green. Rounded forms repeat through the bowl, water surface and table. Flattened plants add pattern.

Earlier that year, Matisse had visited Tangier in Morocco. His observations of people contemplating goldfish bowls informed his interest in the subject. He also knew art from Islamic cultures. These connections do not mean that all art from Asia or North Africa follows one style.

The tilted table and combined viewpoints make the painted space uncertain. Charlotte Wilkins's essay connects this treatment of space with Matisse's study of Cézanne. Describe these particular connections instead of claiming that Goldfish copied Cassatt's Japanese source.

Han money trees were assembled from bronze parts and placed in tombs. Many were probably made in Sichuan and other parts of western China. Coin-shaped pieces expressed wishes for good fortune and wealth in the afterlife.

The example discussed by the Asian Art Museum includes Xiwang Mu, the Queen Mother of the West, near its top. Other figures and a decorated pottery base add to its imagery. These details record historical beliefs; they do not establish that the object delivered wealth after death.

Its thin cast parts also show skilled making. Study the material, casting, symbols and tomb context together. Looking only for resemblance to a living tree would leave out much of this evidence.

Bactrian camels carried goods along trade routes through Central Asia. The Tang tomb figure discussed by the Asian Art Museum represents such a camel. Its makers used earthenware, with moulded parts and added sections. Hollow areas or openings helped reduce distortion during firing.

Its multicoloured glaze is called sancai, meaning three colours. Sancai objects need not have exactly three colours. Glazes could include green, amber, brown or blue, and colours could flow together during firing.

This figure was prepared for burial. Historical sancai glazes contained lead, which can be toxic. These are facts for studying an object, not instructions for home glazing. Material, technique and burial context all help explain it.

Portuguese traders and missionaries came to Japan in the sixteenth century. Japanese artists depicted their ships, clothing, goods and activities on painted screens. The example discussed by the Asian Art Museum shows an arrival at Nagasaki. Cargo is being unloaded, and visitors proceed towards a Christian church.

The term nanban means southern barbarians. It was used for visitors arriving from the south. This label records a naming viewpoint and carries a judgement; it is not an objective measure of the people shown.

When studying the screen, separate visible details from your interpretations. Ask who made the image, whom it depicts and what attracted the makers' attention. One screen cannot establish how every tradition sees unfamiliar people.