Hadong Unamyeongdang Hall Choe Chi-won Portrait

This is a portrait of Go Un Choe Chi-won (857–?), a scholar and man of letters active in the late Unified Silla period, preserved at Unamyeongdang Hall, Hadong. Choe Chi-won was the foremost of the intellectuals who came from the yukdupum, or sixth head-rank, class of Unified Silla society; in 869, the ninth year of King Gyeongmun, he travelled to study in Tang China, where he passed the state examination and was active in official life. The painting shows him as a full-length seated figure with a full, rounded build, wearing a black official's cap and the formal robes of a government post, his hands clasped together as he sits in a tall chair; it measures 77.5 cm in width and 108 cm in height. The rank badge on the chest is rendered in splendid detail, while the pattern on the belt is simple by comparison. The silk ground is painted in vivid colour, with clouds and bamboo forming the background in the upper part of the painting, and stationery items set out on a table in the lower background — presumably objects the subject would have used in daily life — conveying the solemn dignity of a scholar-official and the bearing of a Confucian scholar. This portrait was originally kept at Ssanggyesa Temple, then moved to Geumcheonsa Temple in Hwagae in 1825, the twenty-fifth year of King Sunjo. In 1868, the fifth year of Emperor Gojong, it was transferred to Hadong Hyanggyo, the local Confucian school, under the order abolishing private academies known as seowon, and was kept there for some time. It was later moved to Hoengcheonyeongdang Hall, and in 1924 was brought to its present home at Unamyeongdang Hall, where it has been preserved ever since.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jinju, Gyeongnam

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산