Guardian Deities Painting and Preparatory Drawing of Jeongamsa Temple, Changwon

This work is the Guardian Deities Painting and Preparatory Drawing of Jeongamsa Temple, Changwon, a sinjungdo (a Buddhist painting depicting a host of guardian deities), currently kept in the abbot's quarters of Jeongamsa Temple in Jinhae. It has a crowded composition in which Brahma and Indra (Śakra) and Witaecheon (Skanda, a guardian deity who holds a vajra club) are placed in the upper register, and the Sun and Moon devas, the Eight Legions (palbujung), and attendant youths and maidens are placed in the lower register; the upper figures are given greater prominence than those below. Brahma and Indra stand facing forward, and to their right (the viewer's left) stands Witaecheon, holding a vajra club with hands joined in prayer, his body turned slightly towards Brahma and Indra. Brahma and Indra each have a green circular halo around the head, but their body halos are rendered as a single, undivided field of colour shared by the two figures. Brahma supports a lotus branch on the palm of his left hand and lightly grasps the stem with his right, while Indra stands with his hands joined in prayer. The flesh of Brahma and Indra is painted white, with shading in pale vermilion following the contour lines of the body, and these contour lines are drawn in ink overlaid with a fine vermilion line. The crowns on their heads are ornamented with lotus flowers and beadwork for added splendour, and their hair flows back behind the ears and down along the line of the shoulders, rendered in dense ink. The faces are slightly elongated rectangles with small eyes; the upper eyelid line is drawn in dark ink, the whites of the eyes are painted white with gradated shading at the inner and outer corners, and the pupils are rendered as ink circles. The lips are painted vermilion, and the line between the upper and lower lips is left unpainted so that the flesh colour shows through. The thick, short neck bears the three folds (samdo), a conventional mark of sanctity. Their garments are the robes of heavenly beings, decorated with patterned hems; Brahma wears a green celestial robe with an ultramarine hem, and Indra a vermilion celestial robe with an orange hem. Witaecheon wears an ornate helmet decorated with bird feathers and stands with hands joined in prayer, holding up the vajra club. His flesh, contour lines and facial features are rendered in the same manner as Brahma and Indra, and he wears vermilion armour. On either side of Brahma, Indra and Witaecheon stand attendant youths holding trays of offerings; their hair is rolled up into two knots, and their flesh and contour lines are rendered in the same way as Brahma and Indra's. In the lower register are the Sun Palace deva, bare-headed but covered with a transparent cloth and wearing an ultramarine robe, and the Moon Palace deva, wearing a crown topped with a sutra volume and a vermilion robe; each holds a tray bearing an image of the sun or moon. To the left of the Moon Palace deva stands a heavenly attendant wearing a wollyugwan cap and an official-style robe of dark green, meeting the Moon Palace deva's gaze, while to the right of the Sun Palace deva stand two further heavenly attendants: one, wearing a wollyugwan cap, bows his head towards the Sun Palace deva, and the other, wearing a crown topped with a sutra volume, holds a green scroll and faces the Sun Palace deva. The two guardian deities at the viewer's left and the five guardian figures standing in a row along the very bottom of the painting are, for the most part, painted in a white mixed with vermilion, shaded in vermilion along the contour lines, which are themselves drawn in pale vermilion. These guardian figures are depicted as armed warriors, standing squarely with their legs slightly apart, and their wide, glaring eyes and firmly closed mouths convey the dignity befitting protective deities. Each wears a fur cap, an official-style hood, or a felt military hat, and each holds a long knife or sword in one hand. Their beards are rendered either with a light wash of ink overlaid with fine ink lines, or with fine lines in both ink and white. All wear robes of vermilion, ultramarine or green, over which celestial scarves are draped, and some can be seen to wear armour on the lower body. In the upper part of the painting, billowing clouds are depicted in green and white; the green cloud motifs are shaded in yellow along their outlines, and the white cloud motifs are shaded in vermilion along their outlines. The dominant colours overall are vermilion, together with yellow, green, ultramarine and white. In addition, Brahma's crown, Witaecheon's vajra club and the finial of his helmet, and the trays held by the attendant youths, are all rendered in gold. A preparatory drawing that had been attached to the back of the painting also survives; in this drawing the outlines of the figures are clearly set out in ink lines. Its dimensions are almost identical to those of the finished painting, and it is coloured in dark yellow, pale yellow and white.

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Where it is

Region

Changwon, Gyeongnam

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산