Vulture Peak Assembly Painting of Wongwangsa Temple

A dedicatory inscription shows that this painting was produced in 1791. Fifteen painters took part, including the chief painter Yeongnin and Yongan Yeongsu, who are known to have been active across the Busan, Gyeongnam and Gyeongbuk region in the late eighteenth century. At the bottom centre of the composition, Kasyapa and Ananda stand in attendance on either side of the Buddha's lotus throne, while the armoured Four Heavenly Kings, guardian deities of the four directions, are placed two to each side at the outer edges. All of them stand on fully bloomed lotus pedestals rising on stems from the surface of the sea — the only known example among paintings of Shakyamuni's sermon to depict a sea surface in this way. The geometric patterns combined with the petal designs on the round halos of the figures are known to represent a style that spread from the Daegu and Gyeongbuk region to the Busan and Gyeongnam region. The seating of the Buddha, bodhisattvas and heavenly beings on lotus pedestals that rise upward, or their use of such pedestals as footrests, is a feature found mainly in nineteenth-century works from Gyeonggi-do and the Yeongnam region, and this painting, produced in the late nineteenth century, is judged to be an important, early example of the type. This work is accordingly valued as an outstanding painting of the late Joseon period, with a clearly recorded date of production and distinctive iconography and painting style, and it has been designated a Tangible Cultural Heritage of Busan Metropolitan City for preservation.

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Where it is

Region

Dongnae-gu, Busan

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산