Hanging Painting of Buseoksa Temple, Yeongju (Five Buddhas)

This gwaebul, a huge Buddhist painting hung outdoors for large ceremonies, was made in 1745 in the five-Buddha assembly format. It was produced anew after the earlier gwaebul, painted in 1684 and long kept at Buseoksa Temple, was relocated to Silleuksa Temple in Cheongpung. While the iconography of the 1684 painting was retained as the basis, Rocana Buddha was newly added. Along the horizontal axis are placed Vairocana Buddha, Bhaisajyaguru Buddha and Amitabha Buddha, and along the vertical axis Vairocana Buddha, Sakyamuni Buddha and Rocana Buddha, together forming a five-Buddha assembly that combines the three ages and the three bodies of the Buddha; at its centre is Sakyamuni Buddha, the preaching master of the Vulture Peak Assembly. This format combining the three bodies and three ages of the Buddha is also found in the fifteenth-century Five-Buddha Assembly painting held at Jurinji Temple in Japan and in the 1628 Hanging Painting of the Five-Buddha Assembly at Chiljangsa Temple in Anseong, showing that this iconography first appeared in the early Joseon period and became established in the late Joseon period. This five-Buddha assembly format thus emerged from the combination of the doctrines of the three bodies and three ages of the Buddha following the consolidation of Buddhist orders carried out during the Joseon dynasty, and this painting is a fine example of that development. Despite being a large painting with a crowded, multi-figure composition, it shows a stable arrangement and soft, natural brushwork in the depiction of the figures, representing the refined style of Buddhist painting of the mid-eighteenth century.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yeongju, Gyeongbuk

Designation

Treasure · 보물