Tejaprabha Buddha Assembly Painting and Preparatory Drawing of Yeongguam Hermitage, Gimhae

The Tejaprabha Buddha Assembly Painting and Preparatory Drawing of Yeongguam Hermitage, Gimhae includes the earliest surviving preparatory drawing (chobon) among the extant works of Wanho (1869–1933), a painter active in the modern-era Gyeongsangnam-do and Busan region. Sheets of hanji, traditional Korean paper, 55 cm wide were cut and joined horizontally to make up the width of the picture plane (156 cm), and the Tejaprabha Buddha Triad, the Seven Star Buddhas (Chilseong Yeorae) and the Lords of the Seven Stars (Chilwonseonggun) were drawn in ink outline. The composition is divided into two registers. In the lower register, six of the Lords of the Seven Stars are arranged symmetrically around Jami Daeje, the Great Emperor of the Purple Tenuity, who wears a crown bearing sun-and-moon emblems. In the upper register, the Tejaprabha Buddha, flanked by the attendant bodhisattvas Ilgwang (Sun Light) and Wolgwang (Moon Light), sits at the centre with both a round head halo and a body halo, and to either side eight Buddhas, four on each side, are arranged symmetrically. The grouping of the Lords of the Seven Stars and the Seven Star Buddhas contains an error inconsistent with their identity as seven figures and seven Buddhas respectively, but this was corrected in the coloured version of the painting. The brush lines filling the composition of the preparatory drawing are refined, even lines rather than lines showing full mastery, presenting an exemplary, unwavering rendering of the iconography. Bearing in mind that this is an early work by Wanho, such treatment of line shows that it belongs to his training process on the way to mastery. As the earliest surviving preparatory drawing among Wanho's extant works, produced in the tradition of established iconography, the preparatory drawing of the Chilseong (Seven Stars) painting of Yeongguam Hermitage carries great significance and symbolic value. Accordingly, this preparatory drawing, discovered during conservation treatment, was additionally designated on 12 September 2024 alongside the Chilseong Buddhist Painting of Yeongguam Hermitage, Gimhae, which had already been designated Cultural Heritage Material on 7 October 2010, and the designation was renamed Tejaprabha Buddha Assembly Painting and Preparatory Drawing of Yeongguam Hermitage, Gimhae.

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Where it is

Region

Gimhae, Gyeongnam

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료