Tartars Playing Polo

Tartars Playing Polo

Kano Eisen'in Furunobu 狩野永川院古

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Along with hunting, polo exercised great appeal as a subject for poets, painters, and craftsmen in ancient China. During the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, hundreds of years after the sport's decline in the region, polo made a sudden reappearance as a subject for painting in Japan. The burgeoning warrior class favored such ancient themes as Tartars playing polo and Tartars hunting for decorations in their new castles and mansions. Unlike the grand-scale Momoyama (1573–1615) screen paintings on sumptuous gold backgrounds, this work is quite modest in its execution. The landscape details that usually accompanied Momoyama polo scenes are absent, so that the equestrians, captured as they strike characteristic polo postures, seem like quick studies of pure form.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Tartars Playing PoloTartars Playing PoloTartars Playing PoloTartars Playing PoloTartars Playing Polo

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.