Hyeonwang Painting of Suguksa Temple

This Buddhist painting is a hyeonwangdo, a painting of King Hyeonwang who judges the dead, made and enshrined in 1907 under the monk Wolcho Georyeon as chief patron and Gang Jae-hui as principal donor, with prayers for ten thousand years of life for His Majesty the Emperor, a thousand years of blessed life for the Crown Prince, a thousand autumns of precious years for Crown Princess Yun, a life of precious longevity equal to the years for Imperial Consort Eom, boundless precious longevity for Prince Uichin, an eternal spring of precious fortune for the consort of Prince Uichin, and a smile as vast as the sea for Crown Prince Yeong. It was painted jointly by the chief craftsman (pyeonsu) Boam Geungbeop and Duheum, and the master painters (geumeo) Beomhwa Jeongun, Unho Jaeo and Haengeon. It measures 248.3 cm wide and 150.8 cm high; unlike most hyeonwangdo, the canvas is wider than it is tall, and it is unusually large for a painting of this type. A hyeonwangdo depicts King Hyeonwang, who judges the dead on the third day after death, together with his retinue; King Hyeonwang is the Buddha-form of King Yama, known as the Tathagata Bohyeonwang. In this painting, King Hyeonwang is shown presiding over judgment at the centre, surrounded by Daeryunseongwang and Jeollyunseongwang, magistrates, clerks and child attendants who fill the rest of the composition. King Hyeonwang and the other figures each face in different directions and are rendered with unconstrained gestures, giving the whole scene a sense of vitality. King Hyeonwang is turned to the right, seated on a high-backed chair draped with cloth patterned with a cross-shaped design. He wears a crown decorated with a folded sutra and holds a scroll in his right hand; with his full grey beard and red official robes, he brings to mind a kindly grandfather rather than a judge passing sentence on the dead. On the desk before him lie a copy of the Avatamsaka Sutra, an inkstone, a brush and a water dropper. Around him are arranged Daeryunseongwang, Jeollyunseongwang and a number of clerks and magistrates, dressed as officials and holding scrolls or swords, while the child attendants at the very top of the composition hold fans, banners and canopies. Of these, the two figures immediately before King Hyeonwang bend towards him, one presenting a scroll and the other receiving it, in a manner that is both highly realistic and full of movement. The dominant colours are red and green, with red used more extensively overall, together with gold pigment, blue and white. Perhaps because blue is used more sparingly than in other Buddhist paintings of the period, it harmonises well with the other colours. In its brushwork and its depiction of figures the painting is of a high standard in many respects, its splendid patterns and delicate brushwork rivalling those of Amitabha paintings. The patterns on the high-backed chair, in particular, and the gold-pigment patterns on the robes of King Hyeonwang and his retinue are both splendid and delicate. The faces of the figures were outlined in red and then shaded with graded washes to give a sense of volume, and King Hyeonwang's beard is rendered hair by hair, revealing meticulous brushwork. The Hyeonwang Painting of Suguksa Temple was produced in 1907 together with twelve other Buddhist paintings as a single set, made and enshrined to pray for the peace of the royal household and the long life of the Emperor and other members of the imperial family. By placing King Hyeonwang at the centre with his retinue arranged to either side across a wide horizontal canvas, the composition achieves a sense of stability; the work is outstanding for its use of gold pigment, its well-balanced colouring, its splendid yet delicate patterns, and its assured, wire-like line work throughout.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산