This Japanese roof tile is made of a dark carved wood. It consists of two sections: a carved dove and the roof tile itself. The piece is seen installed on a window ledge overlooking the Gardner Museum’s garden courtyard. The dove looks quite realistic perched on the roof tile. The tile is an open half-pipe shape facing down with one end closed into a full circle decorated in the depressed center by a stylized, five petaled flower head. Because of this closed end, the tile branch tilts upward at an approximate 30 degree angle when set on a flat surface, as it is in the picture. The dove perches on the center of the uptilted tile with its talons splayed and its body facing toward the closed end, toward the viewer. Its head is cocked. The bird looks out and away from the viewer toward the courtyard. Its fat, rounded body has small overlapping incisions carved on it to indicate feathers. The bird’s wings are tightly tucked and its tail feathers bundled and pointed toward the left side of the window.
Japanese
Roof Tile: Dove,
19th century
Painted wood
,
29 cm (11 7/16 in.)
Object details
Accession number
S15s1
Primary Creator
Japanese
Full title
Roof Tile: Dove
Creation Date
19th century
Provenance
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Garder at an auction by the Asian antiquities dealers Yamanaka & Co., Boston on 6 November 1902, lot 389.
Dimensions
29 cm (11 7/16 in.)
Display Media
Painted wood
Web Commentary
Isabella Stewart Gardner kept meticulous records of many of her acquisitions. In keeping with this legacy, object information is continually being reviewed, updated, and enriched in order to give greater access to the collection.
Permanent Gallery Location
Early Italian Room
Bibliography
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 89.
Alan Chong and Noriko Murai. Journeys East: Isabella Stewart Gardner and Asia. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2009), pp. 30 fig. 26, 49 n. 30.
Rights and reproductions
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Isabella Stewart Gardner kept meticulous records of many of her acquisitions. In keeping with this legacy, object information is continually being reviewed, updated, and enriched in order to give greater access to the collection.