Gwaneumjeon Hall Baegui Avalokitesvara Painting of Beomeosa Temple

This painting, hung behind the Avalokitesvara statue in the Gwaneumjeon Hall of Beomeosa Temple, is a Baegui (White-robed) Avalokitesvara painting that visualises the image of compassion. Avalokitesvara is shown seated on a rocky throne against a natural landscape, listening with compassion to all the suffering voices of the human world — an iconography that has been popular since ancient times. This White-robed Avalokitesvara painting is a relatively large work, over 2 metres in size and close to square, made by joining seven panels of silk into a single picture plane. A large circle is drawn on the square picture surface, within which the figure is placed, in a manner reminiscent of the great aureole that, in Goryeo Buddhist paintings, envelops the Avalokitesvara image like a round moon. The bodhisattva faces forward, seated in a relaxed posture on a rocky throne rising above the sea, the right hand resting on the surface and the left hand draped over the left knee, all rendered on a large scale. The white veil worn by the bodhisattva wraps around both shoulders from the crown and flows down past the feet in several curving strands, accompanied by yeongnak (jewelled pendant) ornaments and a vermilion yeongnak sash. The rocky throne on which the bodhisattva sits is especially ornate, its gold-powder ground decorated with a stamped floral pattern in malachite-green pigment, and the same stamped pattern is scattered over the white rock surface as well, an unusual touch. On the low mound of ground beyond the bodhisattva's left foot stands Sudhana, a young attendant shown with palms joined in worship, while on the opposite side two figures bend slightly at the waist towards the bodhisattva. On the rocky throne behind the bodhisattva's right shoulder sits a golden kundika, a ritual water vase, behind which is a blue three-legged incense burner, and above it a single blue bird flies. Around the bodhisattva's halo, bamboo and cloud patterns form the background. According to an inscription at the lower left and right of the painting, this White-robed Avalokitesvara painting was made in the fifth imo year after the beginning of the Chongzhen era, that is, in 1882, the nineteenth year of Emperor Gojong of Joseon. The Baegui Avalokitesvara painting of the Gwaneumjeon Hall at Beomeosa Temple is overall bright and vivid in its colouring, with white pigment and gold powder standing out prominently, and it is a work notable for the delicacy of its brushwork.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Geumjeong-gu, Busan

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산