Buddhist Painting of Unmunsa Temple, Cheongdo (Vairocana Buddha Triad)

The Trikaya Buddha painting (samsinbul, depicting the Buddha's Three Bodies — Vairocana, Sakyamuni and Rocana) enshrined in the Bogwangmyeongjeon Hall of Unmunsa Temple was produced in 1755 under the direction of the monk-painter Cheoil, with a total of nineteen painter-monks working together. Eighteenth-century Trikaya paintings were usually produced in a three-panel format, with Vairocana, Sakyamuni and Rocana each painted on a separate panel, but this work instead takes a single-panel format, painting the three Buddhas together with their many attendants on one enormous canvas. This type of composition can already be seen in the 1650 Gapsan Trikaya Gwaebultaeng (a gwaebul, a huge Buddhist painting hung outdoors for great ceremonies), but it did not become widely popular until the nineteenth century. Notably, the bodhisattva-form Rocana Buddha here does not make the customary preaching gesture (seolbeobin) but instead holds a lotus flower; this lotus-holding hand gesture for Rocana is otherwise found only in gwaebul paintings such as the Sudosa Temple Rocana Gwaebultaeng (1704) and the Tongdosa Temple Rocana Gwaebultaeng (1792), and this is the only known example of it appearing in a hall-hung Buddhist painting (hubuldo). Among eighteenth-century works, this painting is a rare example of a Trikaya assembly painting placing all three Buddhas within a single composition, and its stable overall arrangement, well-balanced figures and restrained colouring, with red and green set in contrast, together reflect the high artistic quality of eighteenth-century Buddhist painting.

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Where it is

Region

Cheongdo, Gyeongbuk

Designation

Treasure · 보물