Gyeongsuyeondo Painting

This album depicts the scene of a feast held for more than ten mothers of scholar-official families who had enjoyed long life, including the 102-year-old mother of Yi Geo (1532–1608), Lady Chae, and the 83-year-old mother of Kang Sin (1543–1615), Lady Yun. The feast was held at a gyehoe, an association gathering, in which Yi Geo, who had been appointed Deputy Right Governor of Hanseongbu during the reign of King Seonjo of Joseon, took part in 1605, the 38th year of King Seonjo. According to the prefaces written by Yi Gyeong-seok (1595–1671) and Heo Mok (1595–1682), when the mother of Yi Geo, then serving as a Third Councillor of the Board of Rites, Lady Chae, reached her full hundredth year in the first month of spring 1603, the 36th year of King Seonjo, the court held that under the rule of a sage it was fitting to bestow favour on the aged; accordingly King Seonjo issued a commendatory writing and appointed Yi Geo to the post of Deputy Right Governor of Hanseongbu. Two years later, ministers whose mothers were aged seventy or above decided to form an association and hold a feast, and King Seonjo is said to have issued special orders to every province to supply the goods and musicians needed, even giving the feast its name, Gyeongsuyeon, the Feast of Celebrating Longevity. The members of the association therefore had the scene of this glorious feast painted so that it could be handed down to their descendants. When the original painting made at that time was lost amid the turmoil of the Byeongja War, the Manchu invasion of 1636, Yi Geo's grandson Yi Gwan is said to have had it remade in 1655, the sixth year of King Hyojong, at the order of his father Yi Mun-heon. The copy now held by the Seoul Museum of History is not, however, the album remade in 1655 itself, but appears to be a later re-creation; judging from the style of the painting, the style of the landscape painted on the folding screen depicted within it, the manner in which the album was made, and the character of its materials, including the quality of the paper, its date is estimated at roughly the late eighteenth to early nineteenth century. The album comprises nineteen pages in all: one page of jeolmok recording the procedures and conduct of the event, five pages of paintings depicting its scenes, five pages of jwamok recording the official ranks, names, ages and clan seats of the participating members, and eight pages of prefaces by Yi Gyeong-seok and Heo Mok describing the circumstances of the album's making. This Gyeongsuyeondo held by the Seoul Museum of History is properly furnished with its prefaces, jeolmok and jwamok, so that the album reveals the circumstances in which the Gyeongsuyeon feast was held, the identities of those who attended, and the background to the album's making, and further shows the custom of the state honouring the elderly at the time; it is thus of great value as historical source material. Through the paintings of the event, one can also see the appearance of the buildings at the time the album was made, the progress of the feast, the changing fashions of dress and ornament, and the scale of the musicians and instruments present.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jongno-gu, Seoul

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산