Hoeheongaemo Portrait

This is a portrait of the Goryeo-period civil official Hoeheon An Hyang (1243–1306). An Hyang passed the state civil examination in 1260, the first year of King Wonjong, beginning his official career as a gyoseorang, a junior post in the royal library. When he served as magistrate of Sangju in 1275, the first year of King Chungnyeol, he suppressed superstitious practices and reformed local customs, and he later rose to posts such as gamchalsa (an inspectorate office) and sugukssa (an office overseeing the compilation of national history). He was Korea's first scholar of Neo-Confucianism, playing a major part in introducing it from the Yuan dynasty and doing much to advance Confucian learning. The painting is a half-length portrait, showing the sitter down to the chest, dressed in a red robe and a low cap. Its style closely resembles that of the portrait of An Hyang preserved at Sosuseowon Confucian Academy (national treasure, No. 111). The picture surface is divided roughly into upper and lower halves, with the figure occupying the lower half. In the Sosuseowon version, the upper half of the painting carries a lengthy inscription recording the history of the portrait, but no such inscription appears here. The reddish face is rendered mainly in outline, with the contours and the eyes, nose and mouth drawn in line; the clothing is depicted simply, in red with black lines of even thickness. According to Bak Seung-im's Sogojip, An Hyang's portrait kept at Sosuseowon had become old, torn and split by 1559, the fourteenth year of King Myeongjong of Joseon, and the court painter Yi Bul-hae was ordered to repaint it. The original now at Sosuseowon is presumed to be the copy made at that time, while this painting, preserved in the descendants' house, appears to be a further copy made from the Sosuseowon version later in the late Joseon period.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yeongju, Gyeongbuk

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산