Night Attack on the Sanjo Palace

When we went through the Japanese art, my mind was like, Wow, that is amazing. The Japanese have this style that flows and is very open, from the mountains in the hanging scrolls to the zen gardens. This particular painting is a historical recording of a battle on the Sanjo Palace. There are actually several paintings about this event and they are all included in an illustrated scroll. This would have been something that people could have opened up like a history book today.
This was a time when the samurai were becoming big in power, and the emperors were merely just puppets for the people.

This picture is during the Heiji disturbance (1159), and it wasn't even that big of a deal. It was just a small skirmish that was made into a big deal. There were two different groups that were trying to get the most people to follow them and thus take over the capital. Fujiwara Shinzei and Taira Kiyomori made up one faction, and they actually gained more influence, and the other group was led by Fujiwara Nobuyori and Minamoto Yoshitomo. But Nobuyori and Yoshitomo actually captured the emperor, and whisked him away and then set the whole palace on fire.

I just love the way the fire is illustrated. They captured the white hot of the fire and the flying sparks in the black of the smoke. It is such a contrast compared to the hanging scrolls that have large landscape scenes in it. If you look very closely, you can make out the heads that Nobuyori and Yoshitomo had cut off the partisans that worked at the palace. The billows of the fire toward the right of the image seem to have the same curves and lines as they draw dragons. I almost feel as if there is going to be a dragon coming out of the fire.

These are some of the other images that I found, that would be in the scroll.

Triumph of Justice

This is an oil painting done by Hans Von Aachen. I have tried to find information about him, but Wikipedia and the J. Paul Getty Museum website gave me the most information. I was not able to find any information on this piece either, but from what I read, von Aachen was a painter for Emperor Rudolf II of Prague. So most of his paintings reflected what Rudolph wanted. I stumbled upon Hans von Aachen when I was searching for other works by Caravaggio.
Rudolph II had a desire for sensuality and female models often facing away from the viewer.


In this image, it mainly has women in it, and the main character is a woman who is portraying justice. I am not sure of the actions between the man on the ground, the lion, the naked woman, and Justice. I know for a fact that the woman with the sword is Justice because of the weights she is holding. I am thinking that the man did something deserving of punishment, and thus justice was being served in the form of a lion. It seems as though justice is wanting to take things farther than just letting the lion attack. But the naked woman seems to be holding her back.


The perspective is correct, and the castle, I think it is, fades into darkness. It almost seems that there is a storm brewing, or the dusk looks very dark. The ladies in the background seem to be a lot closer than the rest of the background. When I look at the faces of the two women up close, the faces are the same. I wonder if this is one woman being represented by two different things. As if justice is one side of the weights and the other side is partiality. Maybe the two characters represent what Rudolph has as responsibilities as a king, having to deal with positive and negative in his rulings, and the different consequences.


There is that stage lighting on the two women in the foreground but also on the women in the background.The lion is bathed in darkness, making justice seem more harsh. There is a book on the ground to the left of the lion. I am not sure if it symbolizes anything.

One of the interesting things that I found out that this oil painting was done on copper.
If anyone can find anything else about the image that would be great.