Vulture Peak Assembly Painting of Mahasa Temple

This painting, preserved at Mahasa Temple, is a Yeongsanhoesangdo, a painting depicting Sakyamuni Buddha preaching on Vulture Peak. Painted in colour on cotton cloth, the composition shows the image of Sakyamuni Buddha seated in the full lotus position at the centre, on a lotus-patterned pedestal. In front of him, to left and right, the bodhisattvas Manjusri and Samantabhadra sit in half-lotus position facing inward, also on lotus-patterned pedestals, while above them the Four Heavenly Kings, the bodhisattvas Avalokitesvara and Mahasthamaprapta, and disciple figures including Ananda and Kasyapa surround the central Buddha. The flesh tones of the central Buddha are painted in yellow, the outlines rendered in red over ink underdrawing. The head is painted with coarse-grained ultramarine pigment, its outline raised and rendered in malachite green. The eyebrows and beard are likewise drawn in malachite green, raised slightly in relief, and the lips are a bright red. The monk's robe has a red ground overlaid with a yellowish-white layer, decorated with scattered double circular motifs containing floral patterns. The halo of the central Buddha consists of a malachite-green head halo and a body halo decorated with wave patterns, each bordered at its outer edge with lines of red, ultramarine and white. The bodhisattva figures are rendered in much the same way as the central Buddha. The faces of the arhats and the Four Heavenly Kings are rendered in white and pink, with the body outlines and wrinkle lines shaded in red to give the wrinkled flesh a three-dimensional quality. The beaded ornaments on the crowns of the bodhisattvas and Four Heavenly Kings are built up with a thick application of baekbun, a white pigment made from ground shell, overlaid with malachite-green pigment, giving them a strongly three-dimensional appearance. The crowns of the bodhisattvas and the Four Heavenly Kings partly use gold, and among the Four Heavenly Kings' attributes, the dragon motifs are rendered prominently with a thick coat of baekbun and treated in a single colour. An inscription at the lower left and right of the painting records that it was made in the 10th year of the Gwangmu era, that is, 1906. The Yeongsanhoesangdo of Mahasa Temple is valuable as a source for studying the style and lineage of Buddhist art in the Busan and South Gyeongsang region in the late Joseon period.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Geumjeong-gu, Busan

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료