Operating on Guan Yu's Arm
Medium
hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold on silk
Dimensions
{"mounted":{"height":2.067,"width":0.731},"mounted with knobs":{"height":2.067,"width":0.776},"painting":{"height":1.402,"width":0.683},"with knobs":{"depth":0.027}}
Classification
Painting
Department
Japanese Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Kelvin Smith Fund
Accession Number
1998.178
Tags
About this artwork
Ukiyo-e artists’ subject matter extended to popular literature. Katsushika Ōi used color to great effect in her gruesome version of an episode from a 14th-century Chinese novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Ōi portrayed the passage in which legendary 3rd-century military leader Guan Yu undergoes a bone scraping to remove poisons received from an arrow wound. In this sensationalist portrayal, Guan Yu’s attendants cower at the sight of his bloody arm while he remains unflinchingly focused on his...