Goheungbongnaesa Temple Guardian Deities Painting

This Buddhist painting, kept in the Daeungjeon Hall of Bongnaesa Temple on Naro-do Island, bears a record that it was produced in 1776, the year of King Jeongjo's accession, at Cheoneunsa Temple in Gurye. The monks who painted it were Minhwi and Noesuk. The Sinjung Painting of Bongnaesa in Goheung, a painting of the guardian deities who protect the Buddhist teaching, combines a Cheonbu, formed by the union of Jeseokcheon and Beomcheon, with a Cheollyongbu depicting five guardian generals; unlike other sinjung paintings of the late eighteenth century, it is significant for showing the iconography of the Cheollyongbu before Wiraecheon became fixed as its principal deity. A sinjung taenghwa is a type of Buddhist painting depicting the guardian deities who protect the Dharma. It is enshrined at the lower part of the walls to the left and right of the centre of a Buddha hall. Many of the guardian deities that appear in sinjung taenghwa are deities native to Korea; the fact that indigenous deities take on the role of guardian spirits protecting the Dharma reflects the Buddhicisation of native folk beliefs, embracing various forms of the nation's traditional faiths. The inscription of the Goheung Bongnaesa Sinjung Painting records that it was produced in 1776, the year of King Jeongjo's accession, at Cheoneunsa Temple in Gurye. The monk-painters were Minhwi and Noesuk, who produced this work together with an Amitabha Buddha Painting and a Samjangbul Painting. The composition combines, one above the other, a Cheonbu centred on Jeseokcheon and Beomcheon, and a Cheollyongbu. In the upper register, Jeseokcheon and Beomcheon, the guardian deities who attend the Buddha of Mount Sumeru on either side, stand with palms joined, facing one another. Around them, the sun and moon deities stand in attendance to left and right, and figures of heavenly boys and heavenly maidens are depicted. To the left and right of Jeseokcheon and Beomcheon a single judge-official is painted on each side. Above these figures are arranged heavenly beings and boy attendants. The figure with a third eye on the forehead, wearing a tall crown, is Beomcheon. In the lower register, around an armoured warrior figure seated in half-lotus posture holding a sword, guardian figures holding weapons, two to each side, take up postures of martial vigour. Green and red are used as the principal colours. From the late eighteenth century onward, Wiraecheon came to be established as the principal deity of the Cheollyongbu in sinjung paintings; the representative guardian-general figure shown in the Cheollyongbu of the Goheung Bongnaesa Sinjung Painting holds a sword and wears armour and looks fearsome, but he is not Wiraecheon, and so the painting follows a comparatively archaic tradition compared with other sinjung paintings of the late eighteenth century. Minhwi, who produced the Sinjung Painting, was a disciple of Hwayeon, who left behind excellent Buddhist paintings across the Jeolla region; the Amitabha Buddha Painting and Samjangbul Painting of Cheoneunsa, produced together with this work, are also works of great significance in terms of both style and iconography for the late eighteenth century. The Sinjung Painting of Bongnaesa later influenced the production of the Sinjung Painting of Seonunsa Temple in 1807, as can be confirmed from the forms and arrangement of Jeseokcheon, Beomcheon and the sun-and-moon deities in the upper register. The Sinjung Painting of Bongnaesa in Goheung is a work by Minhwi, a disciple of Hwayeon, who was active mainly in the Jeolla region in the mid-eighteenth century. When the Buddhist paintings of Cheoneunsa were made in 1776, Minhwi took part as an assistant painter in the other paintings, but worked independently, together with Naesuk, on the Sinjung Painting. His choice of iconography and his stable composition and colouring suggest that he was a painter-monk of considerable skill, who appears to have gone on to influence the iconography of sinjung paintings at nearby temples.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Goheung, Jeonnam & Gwangju

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산