Utagawa Hiroshige I created Hamamatsu: Winter Scene in the Edo period (1833-34) using the medium of woodblock print; ink and color on paper. Specifications include: dimensions of 9 in. x 14 in. and a landscape orientation, as showcased in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, U.K. The piece depicts a wintry rural scene on the outskirts of Hamamatsu station. The village and Hamamatsu Castle are visible in the distance. Porters warm themselves by a bonfire while another traveler looks on, pipe in hand, and a peasant woman is viewed carrying a child on her back. The following analysis will employ terminology, as well as, context from Japanese art culture to briefly describe and analyze noteworthy observations seen through the following basic visual elements: color, line, and form. Subsequently, I will discuss how those elements are composed through compositional devices – balance, and proportion and scale.
One of the most notable visual elements of this piece is its application of color. Upon initial glance, …show more content…
In this painting, Hiroshige manipulates scale by the way he depicts the relative size of objects. As the study of perspective suggests, one of the most important ways to represent recessional space is to depict a thing closer to the audience as larger than a thing the same size farther away. The change in scale helps to measure visually the space in the scene before the audience. This idea explains why the tree in the center of the painting appears exponentially larger than the similarly sized Hamamatsu castle located in the background (on the right side). This is to suggest that the tree is closer in distance than the Hamamatsu castle. This same relationship occurs between the central tree and the trees that occupy both sides of the piece. It all contributes to the artist’s intent to represent recessional space within the
One of the most notable visual elements of this piece is its application of color. Upon initial glance, …show more content…
In this painting, Hiroshige manipulates scale by the way he depicts the relative size of objects. As the study of perspective suggests, one of the most important ways to represent recessional space is to depict a thing closer to the audience as larger than a thing the same size farther away. The change in scale helps to measure visually the space in the scene before the audience. This idea explains why the tree in the center of the painting appears exponentially larger than the similarly sized Hamamatsu castle located in the background (on the right side). This is to suggest that the tree is closer in distance than the Hamamatsu castle. This same relationship occurs between the central tree and the trees that occupy both sides of the piece. It all contributes to the artist’s intent to represent recessional space within the