Heart Sutra and Landscape, mid 18th century, Ike Taiga, Japanese, 1723 - 1776, 53 13/16 ¡Ñ 23 3/16 in. (136.68 ¡Ñ 58.9 cm) (image)85 1/4 ¡Ñ 28 7/8 in. (216.54 ¡Ñ 73.34 cm) (mount, without roller), ink and color on paper, Japan, 18th century, Ike Taiga was a professional painter who employed the purposefully amateurish styles of hugely admired scholar-painters from Chinese antiquity. Taiga assimilated and modified Chinese painting modes like his predecessors had, but he also synthesized what he learned, experimenting with compositional formulas and brushwork to create new and viable styles that were uniquely Japanese. With Taiga, Japanese Nanga painting reached maturity during the third quarter of the 1700s.