Women of old Florence

Women of old Florence turns Saito's female subject matter from Heian-period Japan toward Renaissance Italy, signaling his engagement with the European pictorial tradition that also informed his adoption of intaglio technique. The composition likely draws on the visual repertoire of quattrocento and cinquecento Florentine portraiture — profile views, draped costume, plaited hair, and architectural settings — translated into the etched plate's tonal language. The mezzotint and aquatint passages that distinguish his [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga) of Japanese subjects would here be deployed for embroidered fabrics and the soft modeling of faces in the Italian manner. The piece links Saito's practice to that of Hamaguchi Yozo, his contemporary in Japanese mezzotint, who similarly drew on European subjects and lived for extended periods in Paris. It demonstrates the cosmopolitan reach of Saito's interests beyond the Genji and bijin-ga traditions for which he is most often remembered, situating his work within a transnational post-war print culture.