Portrait of Buddhist Monk Samyeongdang (Yujeong) in Donghwasa Temple, Daegu

This chair-seated portrait shows the subject in a three-quarter left profile, seated facing right in a high-backed chair with his shoes removed, feet drawn up onto the chair in the cross-legged posture, holding a Buddhist ceremonial whisk in his hand. The face, outlined in fine lines that render the features in a plain, colour-wash-free linear technique, is a moderately large, elongated oval with a gentle expression, yet the head is tilted slightly back and the eyes look down sharply, conveying the bearing of a commander of monk-soldiers. The broad shoulders and the beard, which reaches far down below the chin toward the chest, emphasise the spirited presence expected of a monk-soldier commander; the beard is notably longer here than in other surviving portraits of Samyeongdang. The harmony of the dignified yet subdued grey-white tones and the simple, fluid brushwork of the long monastic robe, together with the finely and elaborately patterned deep-red kasaya (monastic outer robe), conveys both the correct and dignified bearing of Samyeongdang as a monk and the authority he held as a commander of monk-soldiers. An inscription in ink at the lower left gives the date as the cyclical year byeongjin, the first year of the Jiaqing era (1796), indicating that the portrait was made sometime after his death in 1610, and at the latest by 1796. Among the roughly ten portraits of Samyeongdang surviving in Korea, this is regarded as the finest. Dimensions (height x width): 122.9 x 78.8 cm.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Dong-gu, Daegu

Designation

Treasure · 보물