Page 255 - Christies Japanese and Korean Art Sept 22 2020 NYC

Among the most meticulously painted and most impressive of wearing outfits in varied colors appear in the lower half, heading
Korean paintings of the hunt, this eight-panel folding screen toward Panel 5. The one dressed in the light aubergine jacket bends
depicts a spectacular hunting scene set in an autumn landscape in backward, dramatically aiming his bow and arrow at two birds
which a large party of Manchu hunters pursues wild animals while in a tree; strapped to his back, his arrow-filled quiver is clearly
holding bows, swords, and matchlock guns along with such pole visible. The hunter in light blue holds a falcon on his left hand,
weapons as lances, spears, tridents, and flails. Unlike many extant while a small black-and-white spotted dog sits behind him on the
hunting screens that depict a large number of horsemen chasing horse. Among the group is an important looking man seated on a
animals in vast spaces, this screen presents a hunting expedition white horse and wearing a leopard-skin jacket and a fur-trimmed
with emphasis on the participants. And, differing from many hat; flanking him, men blow horns to initiate the hunt. Panel 5
surviving hunting screens in which the numerous hunters appear depicts a group of eleven Manchu hunters on horseback arrayed
far in the distance, this screen’s participants not only occupy the diagonally and advancing forward. Between two tall fluttering
foreground but are clearly recognizable as individuals. The eight white and yellow banners with red streamers held by two men is
panels, which read from right to left in continuous fashion, can be the expedition’s central figure; he is shown on a white horse and
understood as a single unified composition; at the same time, each wearing a tiger-skin jacket, blue hat with a white ornament, and
panel can comfortably stand as an independent canvas. Because the arrow-filled quiver. All the figures appearing on this and the other
majority of extant Korean hunting screen are done in a folk style, panels are smartly dressed, wearing Manchu clothing with narrow
this meticulously painted screen ranks among the small handful horseshoe-shaped sleeves and such typical headgear as hats with red
of such screens done in the lofty court style and almost certainly silk tassels, fur-trimmed hats topped by ornaments, and round hats
by a court painter. In short, it not only ranks among the very with upturned brims. They are clearly distinguishable as individuals
finest Korean paintings of the hunt but among the masterworks of with distinct facial features that reveal their ages. Interestingly, the
Korean painting. head of the nearer of the two figures holding a banner is tonsured,
in the manner of a Buddhist monk; the more distant of the two
Rendered in vivid mineral colors but with nuanced tones for the banner-holding figures has either a bald head or a shaven pate.
garments and faces, the figures stand visually apart from the landscape, Birds and game hang from the hunters’ saddles and lance tips. Panel
which is painted in varied but somber tones of ink, thus lending 6 represents an advance team of three hunters leading the central
an austere and desolate quality to the wilderness. Dark, angular group toward the open field in Panels 7 and 8, where the hunt
brushstrokes define the rugged mountains and overhanging rocks in actually takes place. Holding a musket, a bow, and a circular, red,
the right half of the composition, while slender, delicate brushstrokes drum-like object, the three figures make their way into the bleak,
describe the level plains and rolling mountains in the left half. barren terrain at the far left. As expected, the elegant hunting
expedition indeed comes to an end in Panels 7 and 8, where the
The scene opens quietly in Panel 1, at the far right, with towering energetic hunt is in progress. In a field some distance away, three
mountains and huge boulders. An unobtrusive waterfall cascades to horsemen holding a trident, a bow, and a flail form a circle and
the left of the center, balancing the rocky cliff at the right. High close in on a tiger and a deer, each animal running in desperate
on this cliff are four monkeys who are barely noticeable, which attempt to escape. The archer turning his body back at full gallop
emphasizes the remoteness of the setting. Some of the trees clinging to shoot at the tiger recalls the tradition of the Parthian shot. A tall
to the rocky cliffs are changing colors while others are leafless, figure with a yellow banner and red streamers is shown disappearing
suggesting that the season is autumn. The towering rocky mountain over a distant hill together with several other figures.
forms that fill the entire pictorial space in Panel 1 continue onto
Panels 2 and 3. Below the mountains, two Manchu hunters can Hunting screens of this type are variously characterized in Korean
be seen in the lower left of Panel 2, talking to each other while as Suryeop-do (“Hunting Scenes”), Horyeop-do (“Tiger Hunting
walking in the direction of Panel 3. The next four panels offer a Scenes”), or Horyeop-do (“Barbarian Hunting Scenes”). Such
dramatic contrast to the stillness conveyed at the beginning of the paintings had a long history in Korea as illustrated by the spirited
screen. Panel 3 includes six Manchu ladies wearing blue, white, hunters that appear in wall paintings in the fifth-century Tomb of
green, and brown jackets who make their colorful appearance as the Dancers at Gungaeseong, from Korea’s Goguryeo Kingdom (c.
participants in—or perhaps merely as observers of—this expedition. 37 BC–AD 668). The popularity of such paintings continued, as
Visible through a partially open curtain exquisitely embellished with mentions of paintings on the subject by King Gongmin (r. 1351–
a floral pattern, a noblewoman, dressed in bright green, sits within 1374), Kang Hui’eon (1738–1784), and others appear in historical
the horse-drawn carriage. Held by unseen attendants, two tall, records, though few such paintings have survived to the present.
furled banners in blue and yellow—and trimmed in red—rise half-
hidden behind the carriage. Each of the two ladies-in-waiting on Hunting customs were vigorously maintained and practiced in
either side the carriage holds a tall, peacock-feather-edged, circular- China during the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) to reinforce the
fan-like emblem that signals a noble presence. Manchu ethnic identity of the Qing imperial family; moreover, the
imperial hunt at Mukden, the Manchu homeland, was conducted
The space partly opens up in Panel 4 to show a distant lake in the as an annual rite in which the emperor participated. Artists at the
composition’s upper half. Six Manchu hunters on horseback and Qing court produced documentary paintings to