Nanban art is applied to works of art depicting the exotic Europeans, missionaries and traders who came to Japan from the Momoyama period onwards. It was also applied by extension to works intended for export.
The Portuguese were the earliest Europeans to trade with Japan and this two-fold screen which comes up for sale at Veritas in Lisbon depicts a procession of five figures.
Four are of European appearance, Portuguese wearing loose breeches (bombachas), fitted shirts and cone-shaped hats. The fifth is south-east Asian in appearance and carries a parasol which he holds over a European figure who is the head of the procession, while the figure on the left holds a chair and the small boy on the right is shown holding a dog on a lead.
This type of procession scene showing Western traders entering a Japanese city is a frequent subject for depiction on Nanban screens - a figure holding a Western-type chair and a small boy with a dog leading the procession being recurrent motifs.
Veritas’ Portuguese procession screen, which measures 5ft 7in x 6ft 1in (1.7 x 1.86m), is painted in tempera and gold leaf on paper and is dated to the Edo period, to the first half of the 17th century.
It will have an estimate in the region of €150,000-200,000 when it comes up for auction on October 26, the second of a two-day auction of antiques and works of art, silver and jewellery.
