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The Paintings in Mid-Chosun and Its Relation to Contemporary Poetry on Records

정혜린 1

1Center for Chinese Studies, U.C. Berkeley

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The research on paintings in mid-Chosun has crucial troubles in that the painting works remain rare and the writings on them also are mainly poetry just appreciating the landscapes not often mentioning the stuff on canvas even less analytical. However the naive writings point the criteria of appreciation and their ultimate values in those days through their lyric forms. This paper reveals the landscape style in mid-Chosun was influenced by high Tang style poetry especially of serene and lyric prevalent in those days in Chosun from its start. Poetry of those days encouraged painters to show the similarities between paintings and poetry ; composition of clear and fine near scene with person and vague or blurry distant scene, and its fresh unsecular mood. Even the poets out of the style above, intense or narrative, always depicted the paintings as of serene and lyric. With these characteristics of records on the paintings, it is doubtful on what point or how much the landscape style in mid-Chosun is that of Zhe school in Ming dynasty almost unquestioned until now. Zhe school paintings dealt the secular literati enjoying lifes in cities as well as the those in the depths of a mountain, whose faces were also secular in many case. It seems clear that the extents of landscape subject of mid Chosun and Zhe school are different and the former imported just a part of the latter. Parallel to the situation on subject of the paintings it is hardly to say that the form of the paintings is that of Zhe school. There only remain records written in mid Chosun on several names of court painters of Ming dynasty nor of Zhe neither of Wu school. That means the appreciators of Chosun were not enough to discriminate the three styles in Ming dynasty or Zhe school were passed to Chosun its rough and secular vigor diminished blending with court painting style. It is not odd why Kim, Myung-Kuk, a court painter in mid-Chosun, renowned as influenced from wild and heterodox school and as famous today, was never praised at least in the records written in mid Chosun. This investigation on records tells that the paintings in mid-Chosun were far literary and unworldly than those of Zhe school.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.