Yi Won-ik Portrait, Gwangmyeong

Painted on paper, the Yi Won-ik Portrait, Gwangmyeong has such unusual line work and colouring that it can be recognised as a copy at a glance. The face in this portrait was cut from another painting and pasted on; traces of this pasting can be found along a boundary line that begins at both ends of the wings of the official's cap, follows the outline of the face, and continues down to the top of the rank badge. The remaining parts — the official robe, chair and footstool — were painted separately and then joined together. The face in this portrait matches exactly, in pose and in the shape of the features, the meritorious-subject portrait of Yi Won-ik, making it highly likely that it is a copy of Yi Won-ik's Hoseong Meritorious Subject portrait. An inscription record is attached to the back of the portrait. The character "cho" (draft) used in this inscription is understood to mean not the original meritorious-subject portrait made in 1604, the thirty-seventh year of King Seonjo, when the Hoseong Meritorious Subject portraits were produced, but a preliminary sketch made before the original, or a separately drawn "draft copy". It is therefore likely to be either a preliminary sketch-copy made at the time the meritorious-subject portrait was produced, or a later copy made from that sketch-copy. On the official robe of this portrait, large cloud patterns have been painted, coloured in shades of blue; this colouring follows the original robe colour that remained faintly visible just below the face. The tawny-yellow face is well preserved, so its line work, contours and painting technique can be clearly identified. The wrinkles between the eyebrows, the fine lines around the eyes, and the lines at the corners of the mouth are also rendered in a neatly organised form. This portrait is a copy of a draft upper-body sketch made for Yi Won-ik's Hoseong Meritorious Subject portrait, completed as a full-length portrait by painting in the remaining official robe based on that sketch.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산