Amitabha Buldo Painting of Anyangam Hermitage

Anyangam Hermitage, in Changsin-dong, Jongno-gu, was founded in 1889 by the great monk Seongwol and today serves as a branch of the Korean Buddhist Art Museum. It retains Daeungjeon Hall along with other Buddhist halls such as Myeongbujeon Hall (hall of the underworld), Cheonobulbuljeon Hall (hall of the Thousand Five Hundred Buddhas), Geumnyunjeon Hall, Gwaneumjeon Hall, Yeombuldang Hall and Yeonggak Hall, together with numerous Buddhist paintings and statues made by the leading painter-monks of the day, including Gosandang Chugyeon. This Amitabha huhbuldo - a painting hung behind a main Buddha statue - is enshrined behind the Amitabha triad in Daeungjeon Hall. It bears no separate inscription recording its production, but the Anyangamji (Record of Anyangam), published in 1958, confirms that it was made in 1889, the year the hermitage was founded and the 26th year of Emperor Gojong's reign. It was painted by the monk Gyeongseong. Centred on Amitabha Buddha, the painting shows, on the left, the bodhisattvas Avalokitesvara (Gwaneum) and Manjusri (Munsu), Kasyapa, one of the Ten Great Disciples, and the Heavenly Kings of the East and North; and on the right, the bodhisattvas Mahasthamaprapta (Daeseji) and Samantabhadra (Bohyeon), Ananda, another of the Ten Great Disciples, and the Heavenly Kings of the South and West. The simplified rendering of the Four Heavenly Kings reflects the iconographic conventions typical of the period in which the work was made. The upper part of Amitabha's halo is entirely covered in gold pigment, a technique found in paintings of the same period only in the Seoul and Gyeonggi region, at temples such as Hwagyesa and Bogwangsa, and not seen elsewhere, distinguishing it from contemporary Buddhist paintings from other regions. As a work by Gyeongseong, one of the foremost painter-monks of his time, and as a piece representative of its period and region in both iconography and technique, with its original form well preserved, this painting holds considerable significance.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jongno-gu, Seoul

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산