Hanging Scroll Behind the Buddha in Yeongguksa Temple (The Vulture Peak Assembly)

Bodhisattvas such as Manjusri and Samantabhadra, together with a host of holy attendants, are densely and symmetrically arranged around the central figure of Sakyamuni Buddha; the painting dates from a relatively early period among Joseon-dynasty Buddhist paintings. It is a typical example of the crowded 'assembly of many figures' composition, led by the painter-monk Inmun and his school, in which the Buddha's retinue is arranged in a ring around him. At the top, soft, mid-toned clouds in yellow, green and red are set against a darker background elsewhere, giving the picture a sense of depth. The surrounding figures are drawn progressively smaller towards the top and all face the principal Buddha, lending perspective to the flat picture plane while underscoring the painting's function as an object of worship. The dominant colours are red and green, with extensive use of a light, pale red typical of early Joseon painting; although some figures are rendered a little stiffly, the brushwork is at once simple, detailed and refined, revealing considerable skill. An inscription in ink at the centre of the lower border records that the painting was newly made and enshrined in the fourth month of the forty-eighth year of the Kangxi era, painted by the monk-painters Inmun, Min-gi and Sejeong. This shows that the work was produced in 1709 — the forty-eighth year of Kangxi and the thirty-fifth year of King Sukjong — by these three Buddhist painter-monks. As a typical example of the 'assembly of many figures' format that became widely popular from the seventeenth century onward, with both its date of production and its makers clearly recorded, it is a valuable resource for tracing the development of Buddhist painting style from the early seventeenth to the early eighteenth century.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jongno-gu, Seoul

Designation

Treasure · 보물