Yi Chung-won Portrait of Songam Hermitage

This is the meritorious-subject portrait of Yi Chung-won (1537–1605), who in 1604, the thirty-seventh year of King Seonjo, was inducted as a Hoseong Merit Subject, a title awarded to officials who had escorted the king to safety during the Japanese invasions. Yi Chung-won was a great-great-grandson of Deokcheon-gun Hu-saeng, the tenth son of King Jeongjong. For his service in escorting King Seonjo to Uiju during the Japanese invasions of 1592, the twenty-fifth year of King Seonjo, he was inducted in 1604 as a second-class Hoseong Merit Subject and ennobled as Wanyang-buwongun. Among meritorious-subject portraits produced in the early seventeenth century, the portrait of Yi Chung-won stands out for its precise brushwork and very high artistic quality. It follows the standard form of such portraits, a full-length seated figure on a folding chair, with the hands clasped in front. In the face, the core of any portrait, the complexion is rendered clear and translucent, with none of the modelling of facial contours, shading, or three-dimensional effect found in later copies made of seventeenth-century portraits during the late Joseon period. The facial features are all delineated with outline drawing, and apart from the eyes, dark brown lines are used throughout to render form and wrinkles. The rank badge patterned with peonies and a pair of peacocks, and the rhinoceros-horn belt he wears, indicate that he held the first rank among civil officials at the time. A brightly patterned woollen carpet painted on the floor of the composition adds to its decorative completeness. The portrait of Yi Chung-won is valuable not only as a record of the individual but also as material for the study of Joseon-period portraiture, the history of costume, and records relating to meritorious subjects.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yeoju, Gyeonggi

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산