Page 334 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

KOREAN PAINTING OF THE EARLY CHOSON PERIOD

Sherman E. Lee

K

K k.orean art, especially that between 1450 highly colored style of Buddhist icon painting, painting were directly influenced by the
and 1550, is important in its own right as a dating from the Tang dynasty (618-907). The Chinese monochromatic ink painting tradition,
transformation of Chinese styles and subjects wen ren style, fully launched in China by 1350, and since the two were also mutually influen-
and as an influence upon the art of Japan. But did not affect Korean painting until the late six- tial, it is not surprising that we cannot tell
our knowledge of Korean art, especially paint- teenth and seventeenth centuries, except for the which of numerous fifteenth-century paintings
ing, is so limited and fragmentary that our distinctive massed-dot manner begun by Mi Fu are Korean and which were executed by
approach to the subject should be cautious and (1051-1107) and continued by the Yuan master Japanese artists. The discovery of paintings
our conclusions most tentative. The invasions of Gao Kegong (1248-1310). Gao's influence bearing convincing inscriptions or seals that
Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) in 1592 and resulted from the close connections between offer evidence of authorship or provenance
1597, the sack of Korea by Manchu armies in the Korean King Ch'ungnyol (r. 1274-1308) and helps to resolve this confusion. Thus the dis-
1627 and 1636, and the annexation of the hard- the Mongol Yuan dynasty, which Gao served as covery, about 1968, of the ten-leaved album of
pressed country by Japan from 1910 to 1945, a high official in its capital at Dadu (present-day bamboo paintings by Yi Sumun (cat. 266) with
caused both destruction and displacement of Beijing). In Dadu Ch'ungnyol built a well- its signature, seal, and inscription effectively
works of art on a large scale. Even identifying known library called Hall of Ten Thousand Vol- separated the Korean Yi Sumun (J: Ri Shubun)
Korean works became problematic; because all umes (Mangwan Dang; Kim 1991,186-187), from the Japanese Tensho Shubun (cat. 228). It
styles of Korean painting reflect in some degree and it is recorded that numerous celebrated also established that the album was painted in
its influence from Chinese and Japanese art, and Chinese scholar-official painters such as Zhao Japan in 1424. Since Tensho Shubun returned to
because Korean art, with its Chinese compo- Mengfu visited the king and his library in
nents, was so strong an influence on Japanese Dadu.
art, numerous Korean paintings, once removed Korean artists who had no direct access to
to foreign locations, came to be considered Chinese painters might draw inspiration from
Chinese or Japanese. Only since the Korean War Chinese paintings. Scroll paintings, being emi-
(1950-1953), and the subsequent recovery of nently portable, lend themselves to collecting,
the Korean political, economic, and social order, and a remarkable group of Chinese scrolls was
has the study of Korean painting begun slowly amassed by Prince Anp'yong (1418-1453), third
to develop, producing evidence and permitting son of King Sejong (r. 1418-1450). Though the
distinctions that are clearing away the errors collection is long dispersed, a list of its contents
and prejudices of the past. The first formal survives, but one cannot judge the worth of the
effort in this direction was the 1973 exhibition paintings by the names of the artists. Gu Kaizhi
at the Yamato Bunkakan (Nara, Japan), Korean (c. 345~c. 406) and Wu Daozi (active c. 710-
Painting of Koryo and Yi Dynasties, with one 760), for example, were almost certainly not
hundred works from Japanese temples and secu- represented by genuine works, or even by works
lar collections. Since then research and publica- in their styles. But the presence of fifteen
tion has proceeded with "all deliberate speed/' scrolls credited to Guo Xi (c. looi-c. 1090) and
but only a beginning has been made, and this two attributed to Ma Yuan (act. before ii9O-c.
brief essay must be circumspect in its assump- 1230) is significant even if the works were not
tions and provisional in its conclusions. genuine, for their manners were so distinctive
The massive cultural and aesthetic presence as to be readily paraphrased. Guo's grand and
of China, Korea's nearest neighbor, naturally astringent style, expressed through the barren
influenced the development of later Korean plateaus and mountains of north China, and
painting. Chinese paintings and painters could Ma's romantic "one-cornered" compositions of
reach Korea easily — from north China by land fragments of nature are both very much repre-
through Shenyang (formerly Mukden, capital of sented among the works produced by Korean
Manchuria), from south China by the Yellow painters of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Sea (Huang Hai) from such ports as Ningbo on Japanese artists at least occasionally visited
the Bay of Hangzhou. From the north, under Korea. The visit by Tensho Shubun in 1423-
both the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127) 1424 is well documented, and others are men-
and its conqueror, the proto-Manchu Jin empire tioned. From these contacts, influences pro-
(1115-1234) came the early monumental land- ceeded in both directions. Chinese Ma-Xia fig. i. Sakyamuni and Two Attendants. Late Koryo
scape style. From the south came the more inti- school works in the shogunal collections colored period. Korean. Hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold
mate and "romantic" landscape mode of the Japanese painters' attitudes to composition and on silk. The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L.
Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) and the subject matter. Since both Korean and Japanese Severance Fund

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