Namhae Yongmunsa Temple Lone Arhat Buddhist Painting

This Buddhist painting fills the picture plane with the Lone Arhat, a solitary Buddhist saint, a pine tree painted at the very top and rocks on either side of him, depicting a practitioner cultivating himself amid nature. The Lone Arhat sits turned about three-quarters to the side on a mat edged in red, one leg raised with his right arm resting down over the knee, while his left hand grips a monk's staff leaning obliquely against his shoulder. In terms of technique, the skin is painted white overall and outlined in red, while the wrinkles of the forehead, the space between the brows, the eye sockets and the chin are shaded to give depth. The white eyebrows, painted in the boneless (molgolbeop) technique with pale colour, and the eyes, which seem to gaze fixedly at something, have their upper lid lines drawn in ink, while only the outer corners of the lower lid lines are lightly drawn in ink; the irises are painted brown, with their edges and pupils finished in ink. The tightly closed red lips, together with the Lone Arhat's gaze, are more than adequate to express the firm will of a seeker of the Way. The robe draped over both shoulders, leaving the chest and belly bare, is painted overall in red, with the folds expressed in deeper red lines. The pine tree at the very top of the painting has its needles painted in overlapping fan shapes, coloured green overall with a deeper green on the inside, shaded gradually outward to give a sense of volume. The cubic rocks on either side of the Lone Arhat are painted blue and pale ultramarine from the outside in, with the ground left bare at the centre to give the rocks a sense of volume.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Namhae, Gyeongnam

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료