Go Un Portrait

This is a portrait of the scholar Choe Chi-won, pen name Go Un (857-?), of the Unified Silla period. In 869, the ninth year of King Gyeongmun of Unified Silla, Choe Chi-won went to study in Tang China, where he passed the state examination and built his career; he is especially well known for the Tohwangso gyeongmun (Proclamation to Denounce Huang Chao), which he wrote in 879 to help suppress the rebellion of Huang Chao. The portrait follows the Chinese-style format of a literati portrait, and measures 105cm wide by 74cm high. Portraits of Choe Chi-won survive in several places, and most of them depict him as a monk; this painting is unusual in showing him wearing an angular sabangmo, a four-sided hat, and everyday dress, seated in a relaxed pose with a fan in hand. On either side stand a boy attendant holding a celadon bowl filled with pomegranates and a girl attendant holding a banana-leaf fan. In the upper left of the painting is written the title 'Silla Choe seonsaeng Go Un ji jinyeong' (True Portrait of Master Choe Go Un of Silla). Judging from the depiction of the face, the technique used for the folds of the clothing, and the shape of the mat spread on the floor, the painting appears to have been copied from an original during the late Joseon period. Although it is a later copy, whereas most Korean portraits depict the subject alone within the composition, this portrait is unusual in including child attendants, making its composition a work of great interest for the study of portraiture. Choe Chi-won's portrait became known to the world through the versions kept at Ssanggyesa Temple on Jirisan Mountain and Haeinsa Temple on Gayasan Mountain. This portrait is the Haeinsa version; it was originally kept among the nahan (arhat) statues at Haeinsa Temple, and was moved to the Choe clan to avoid plunder by Japanese forces in the closing years of the Korean Empire. The work's historical value is highly regarded.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Cheongdo, Gyeongbuk

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산