Myo Gwaneumsa Temple O Buddha Buddhist Painting

The Myo Gwaneumsa Temple O Buddha Buddhist Painting depicts five Buddhas — Dabo Yeorae, Myosaeksin Yeorae, Gwangbaksin Yeorae, Ipoe Yeorae and Gamno-wang Yeorae — and is a taeng, a Buddhist painting hung within the temple grounds during rites for guiding the spirits of the dead (yeongga cheondo). The overall appearance of the five standing Buddha figures is very similar across the set. Each painting was originally made as a hanging scroll with colour on silk, but the individual panels have recently been remounted, each reframed as a single framed picture. The inscription panel (hwagiran) recording the production has lost its original position and is now kept separately, mounted in its own frame. The original colouring survives only faintly, and the work has since been overpainted here and there with thick, crude colours; the brushwork, too, has been altered — the original lines are thin and supple, but the restored lines are thick and coarse, and in several places the retouching departs from the original forms. The inscription panel records the names of the painter-monks Yuseong and Nakjeong, showing them to be the artists of this set of five Buddha paintings. Yuseong was a noted painter-monk who, in the 18th century, also produced Buddhist paintings for temples such as Tongdosa, Ssanggyesa, Bongjeongsa, Gaesimsa and Unmunsa. Although the inscription panel has been separated from the painting itself, and the overpainted colours and retouched brushwork have somewhat diminished the value of the original lines and colours, the work remains a valuable resource for the study of painter-monks active in the Gyeongsang-do region in the 18th century and for the study of five-Buddha paintings, given that it forms part of the work of Yuseong and that no other 18th-century five-Buddha painting had previously been reported from the Busan region.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gijang, Busan

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료