Portrait of Bak Yu-myeong

Bak Yu-myeong (1582–1640) passed the military examination in 1620, the 12th year of King Gwanghaegun's reign. In 1623 he took part in the restoration that enthroned King Injo, was ranked third class among the Jeongsa Gongsin, the Meritorious Subjects who helped restore the state, and subsequently served as a senior royal messenger-officer before holding the post of Commander of the Five Guards Divisions. The portrait shows him wearing a low black gauze cap, with exaggeratedly rounded shoulders and a round-collared robe that juts out sharply at the back, set against a colourful felt mat on the floor — features that together display the typical iconography of 17th-century portraits of meritorious subjects. Along with this portrait there survives another work, presumed to be a later copy; it is almost identical in composition, though its pigments are more vivid. The Portrait of Bak Yu-myeong shows the typical style of 17th-century meritorious-subject portraiture and is notable as a portrait of a military official bearing a tiger rank badge. As the copy differs stylistically from the original and is of somewhat lower quality, only the original is designated. It measures 170 x 88.3 cm (height x width).

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Suwon, Gyeonggi

Designation

Treasure · 보물