Bokcheonsa Temple Shakyamuni Vulture Peak Assembly Painting

The Bokcheonsa Temple Shakyamuni Vulture Peak Assembly Painting is a hubultaeng (a Buddhist painting hung behind a main Buddha image) that was enshrined on the front of the altar-back wall behind the seated Shakyamuni Buddha image in the old Daeungjeon Hall of Bokcheonsa Temple. According to its hwagi (an inscription recording the painting's production), the work was enshrined in December 1921 at Seokgeumdae in Myeongjang-ri, Dongnae County, with the monk-witness Hyemyeong, the master painter Wanho, and a sponsor-recorder among those involved; this shows that after being made in 1921 it was later moved to Bokcheonsa Temple at some point. It was designated a Busan Metropolitan City Cultural Heritage Material on 27 December 2005. The painting measures 125.7 cm in height and 261.0 cm in width, forming a horizontally elongated rectangle, and is executed in colour on cotton cloth. In its iconographic composition, the Shakyamuni Buddha is depicted large at the centre, with his retinue arranged in horizontal rows on either side. In the front row, seven bodhisattva figures — including Manjusri and Samantabhadra — and one Buddha-form figure are arranged symmetrically left and right; behind them, amid yellow-coloured clouds, the Ten Great Disciples are shown in two rows of five on either side, together with the lion king and the elephant king. In front of the bodhisattva figures, two heavenly-being figures kneel with hands joined in worship toward the principal Buddha, and beyond them two of the Four Heavenly Kings are depicted seated on chairs against circular mandorlas. Corresponding to these, two further figures of the Four Heavenly Kings, likewise bearing circular halos, are placed at the very top edge of the painting. On either side of the principal Buddha's halo, amid the coloured clouds, the Dragon King and Dragon Girl are depicted on a small scale. Around 1920, Wanho produced a series of Buddha altar paintings with similar iconography and technique, and this work is one of them. Paintings showing similar iconographic features include the Buddha altar paintings enshrined at Samyeongam Hermitage of Tongdosa Temple (1917), Cheongnyangsa Temple (1918), Yeondeungsa Temple (1924) and Gyemyeongam Hermitage of Beomeosa Temple (1927). These are mid-sized Buddhist paintings in a horizontally elongated rectangular format wider than it is tall, closely related in size to the altar-back walls of halls built from the modern period onward. Because of this format, the figures are arranged neatly in horizontal rows: around the Buddha image at the centre, the bodhisattva figures with round green halos are placed in the lower part of the composition with their bodies shown as fully as possible, while above them the retinue figures, including the Ten Great Disciples, are rendered on a reduced scale. In addition, guardian deities such as the Four Heavenly Kings or Vajra deities are densely arranged in the spaces at the painting's four corners, lending the composition a sense of stability.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yeongdo-gu, Busan

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료