his early tradition had submitted to
the influence of Buddhist art and, while certain of its elements were
revived in the work of a few masters, there is no doubt that figure
painting from the seventh and eighth centuries on, was absolutely
revolutionized. The inevitable result was a new type in the sixteenth
century. Painters studied the line for itself, determined its proportions,
and analyzed features and drapery. As far as our present knowledge
extends, their observations were not collected and codified until the end
of the nineteenth century, but the assembled writings testify that the
result of their studies was expressed along the lines indicated from the
end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries. Their
ideal was totally different from that of the old masters. The figure
treated for itself with but few accessories became the sole aim of the
painter. He endeavored to show the charm of a woman's face, the dainty and
elegant gestures, the supple and voluptuous gait, and he grasped the
characteristics and peculiarities of a man's figure by means of an
intensified drawing. At times, the influence of analysis was so objective
that it resulted in a painting closely approaching European standards. The
taste expressed in landscape was likewise evident in figures. There were
brilliant and harmonious colors, a charm which became exquisite in the
coquettish and vivacious faces of women with ivory skin and brilliant
eyes, of graceful movements, and with long, slender, delicate hands,
incarnations of the fairies of ancient legend or historic beauties whose
memory still lived.

In a word, the philosophical inspiration to which the Sung dynasty owed
its glory was discarded to make way for the painting of everyday life, a
realistic representation of the world and its activities, which in Japan
gave rise to the Ukioyoye school, and in China recruited a series of
painters of the first rank outside the limits of academic tradition.

It would be interesting to study the influence of this movement of the
China of the time of Ming upon the originators of the Ukioyoye in Japan.
It is certain that the movement on the continent preceded similar
manifestations in the island empire by a century, and it is also certain
that the Japanese empire was directly influenced by the China of the Ming
period. Chinese painters were established in Japan as early as the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. There is one of whose fam