Cheongnyongsa Temple Mountain Spirit Painting

The Mountain Spirit Painting of Cheongnyongsa Temple was painted in 1902 by the geumeo (a monk ranked as a master Buddhist painter) Duheum. In the centre of a horizontally long rectangular canvas, against a backdrop of mountains, rivers and pine trees, it shows the Mountain Spirit seated facing right, with a tiger and a boy attendant simply rendered around him. The pose of the Mountain Spirit seen here — seated on a rock in profile, with both hands placed evenly on his knees — also appears in the Mountain Spirit Painting of Bongeunsa Temple in Seoul (1886) and that of Jikjisa Temple in Gimcheon (20th century). The Bongeunsa painting was produced by Gyeongseon Eungseok and others, and the Jikjisa painting reverses that composition left to right with some modifications; since Duheum, who painted the Cheongnyongsa work, was himself one of the monk-painters involved at Jikjisa, it is thought that the Cheongnyongsa painting probably took Gyeongseon Eungseok's iconography as its basis. The composition — centred on the Mountain Spirit seated facing right against mountains, rivers and pine trees, with a tiger and a boy attendant simply depicted around him — together with the background pine trees, strangely shaped rocks, sacred fungi, clouds and waterfall rendered in blue-green landscape style, clearly displays the characteristics of Mountain Spirit Paintings from the late 19th to early 20th century.

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Where it is

Region

Jongno-gu, Seoul

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료