Im Gyeong-eop Portrait

This is a portrait of General Im Gyeong-eop (1594–1646), posthumous title Chungmin-gong, a military official of mid-Joseon. Im passed the military examination in 1618, the tenth year of King Gwanghaegun, and distinguished himself in suppressing Yi Gwal's Rebellion during the reign of King Injo. The portrait is a full-length seated image, the sitter facing directly forward and wearing official robes patterned with clouds; it measures 90 cm across and 160 cm in height. It is painted in colour on silk and is said to have been made by a Ming Chinese court painter when Im was forty-seven, so that his likeness could be shown to the Ming emperor. The lines of the face are drawn dark and firm, giving a settled, composed impression, while the folds of the robe are rendered with long, sweeping brushstrokes that give them an almost patterned, decorative quality. The rank badge on the chest and back of the official robes bears a distinctive design that was granted, under King Injo, to military officials who had rendered great service to the state. In the background, on a table, stands a white porcelain vase holding pine, bamboo and plum blossom, and on a gold lotus-shaped stand sits an incense burner in the form of a haetae, a mythical lion-like guardian creature, its smoke curling upward like a skein of thread. The table placed behind the sitter is a particularly original device: above it a dragon is painted, and below it a landscape with figures. In front of the general's separate shrine, where the portrait is kept, stands Ssangseonggak, a pavilion built in 1788, the twelfth year of King Jeongjo, to honour the loyalty of General Im Gyeong-eop and his wife, Lady Yi of Jeonju. A plaque there records Lady Yi's purity and loyalty alongside the general's own story.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Chungju, Chungbuk

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산