Eungjinjeon Hall Sixteen Arhats Painting of Mahasa Temple

This painting, preserved in Eungjinjeon Hall of Mahasa Temple, depicts the Sixteen Arhats arranged in various postures against a landscape background. Painted in colour on silk, it originally comprised four panels, but one has been lost, leaving only three. The flesh of the arhats is rendered in pink, made by mixing a large amount of white pigment into red, and the contour lines of the flesh are drawn by overlaying a pale red line on a fine ink line, with red shading added along the contours to create a sense of volume. The heads are shown with white lines for the hair of the older monks, while the heads of the younger monks are rendered with a blue-green wash. The robes generally show a complementary colour contrast of blue-green or ultramarine outer robes with red kasaya (the monastic stole worn over the shoulder). An inscription at the lower left and right of the painting records that it was made in the gyeongsul year, 2,937 years after the Buddha's descent to the world — that is, in 1910. The Sixteen Arhats painting of Mahasa Temple's Eungjinjeon Hall is, overall, in good state of preservation, and it has value as material for examining the style and lineage of Buddhist art in the Busan and Gyeongnam region in the late Joseon period.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yeonje-gu, Busan

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료