Hanging Painting of Magoksa Temple (Sakyamuni Buddha)

A gwaebul is a large Buddhist painting used for great ceremonies and rites held outdoors, and this hanging painting depicts Sakyamuni Buddha as the principal image. Centred on Sakyamuni Buddha, the Six Great Bodhisattvas, the Ten Great Disciples, Indra and Brahma, the Four Heavenly Kings, heavenly beings, asuras and dragon kings fill the composition in a symmetrical arrangement. Sakyamuni Buddha holds a branch of the dragon-flower tree in both hands, and the hands are painted large in proportion to the rest of the body. The halo, symbolising the light radiating from the Buddha's body, is divided into a round head halo and a boat-shaped body halo, and several small Buddha figures are painted within the head halo. The Six Great Bodhisattvas attending Sakyamuni Buddha on either side, including Dipankara Bodhisattva, comprise Avalokitesvara, Mahasthamaprapta, Manjusri and Samantabhadra; the Ten Great Disciples and the heavenly beings Bohyang and Myeongwol are placed at the upper left and right corners, and asuras, garudas and dragon kings are arranged around them. An inscription shows that donors, monks and lay people took part in its production, and that the painting was used not only on the Buddha's birthday but also for water-and-land rites and forty-ninth-day memorial rites. With its dignified forms and vivid colours on a large canvas, the work well reflects the characteristics of the first half of the seventeenth century; the main Buddha is depicted large at the centre while the surrounding figures are placed smaller around him, conveying the impression that Sakyamuni overwhelms the ordinary assembly. It is a distinctive work in which Sakyamuni, one of the Three Buddha Bodies, is depicted in bodhisattva form in the same way as Rocana Buddha, and it records Sakyamuni's honorific name, 'the Sakyamuni Buddha who manifests in a hundred billion transformation bodies', along with the names of each figure, giving it particular value for the study of Buddhist painting.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gongju, Chungnam

Designation

Treasure · 보물