Hanging Scroll Painting of Bongeunsa Temple

This painting was created in 1886 through donations from Lady Kim of Sunhwagung, a royal consort of King Heonjong, and various court ladies, to commemorate a Wontong Buddhist ceremony. Daeheo Chehun, one of the leading Buddhist painter-monks of the Seoul and Gyeonggi region in the nineteenth century, drew the outline, and Yeongmyeong Cheongi, Geungjo and Donjo worked on it together. Painted on cotton cloth made by joining four panels of fabric and finished at both ends with wooden rollers, this huge gwaebul — an outdoor hanging painting used for large-scale Buddhist ceremonies — measures 686 cm in height and 394.5 cm in width, and has a simple composition showing only one Buddha, two bodhisattvas and two disciples. At the centre is a large figure of Sakyamuni Buddha, with the Venerable Kasyapa to the left and the Venerable Ananda to the right; in the lower section, Manjusri Bodhisattva and Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, both shown as children, ride a lion and an elephant respectively. Sakyamuni stands facing forward with dignity, framed by flower-shaped head and body halos; his right hand is raised to shoulder height holding a fully bloomed white lotus, while his left hand is drawn to the centre of his chest with the fingertips touching. This image of Sakyamuni holding up a flower symbolises yeomhwasijung — the episode in which Sakyamuni held up a lotus and only the Venerable Kasyapa understood its meaning and smiled, epitomising the teaching method of Seon Buddhism. The same motif appears in earlier gwaebuls, including those of Seonseoksa Temple (1702), Yongmunsa Temple (1705), Odeoksa Temple (1768), Namjangsa Temple (1788) and Gaeunsa Temple (1879); since Daeheo Chehun and Manpa Donjo, who took part in producing the Gaeunsa gwaebul, were also involved in this one, a similar iconography is thought to have been applied. This iconography was later carried on in the gwaebul of Hwajangsa Temple (1901). The face has a broad forehead and a rounded chin, with small facial features; the usnisha, the cranial protuberance symbolising wisdom, is tall and pointed, with clearly defined middle and crown finials. The body is broad-shouldered and sturdy; an inner robe is worn beneath a red outer robe draped over the left shoulder, with the hem of the outer robe lightly drawn over the right shoulder as well — a variant of the both-shoulders-covered style. On the outer robe is a finely painted yellow pattern showing wave motifs within flower-shaped roundels.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gangnam-gu, Seoul

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산