19세기 모란도 성행과 조선사회의 부귀지향

Abstract

This study aims to find out reasons and background on prevalence of peony paintings in the Chosun dynasty during the 19th century. In terms of the Chosun painting history, peony paintings could not have been in the spotlight until 19th century. Comparing to popularity of the Four Gracious Plants ─ plum, orchid, chrysanthemum and bamboo symbolizing virtues of Confucianism in Chosun, it seems that literary artists in Chosun intentionally did not paint peony paintings. Peony has been strongly recognized as a symbol of wealth. Due to the symbolism, Confucian writers tried to keep peony away ─ at that time, the symbolism was not positive meaning but had strong negative images for them. The negative image of the peony can be easily found in their poems and verses. However, this trend was dramatically changed at the turns of the 19th century. In this century, the public loved peony as a painting subject. Heo Ryeon(1808-1893), also known as “Peony Heo”, drew a lot of black ink peony paintings ─ until now, 60 pieces of them have remained. Many painters greatly impressed with his work also drew black ink peony paintings in a similar style. Meanwhile, peony paintings have significant weight in folk paintings widely used in living space ornaments and rituals in the 19th century. Many folding screens themed by peony as a single subject are well preserved. Especially, in flowers and birds folding screens, peony has been loved as a essential subject and some folding screens fill their 2~3 screens with peonies. In other words, the peony paintings started to blossom in 19th century. Therefore, this study questions why peony painting were becoming popularly thriving in the 19th century. The research focuses on “wealth” peony represents and finds out the reason from an ideological shift in Chosun during the 19th century. In Chosun, 19th century had seen drastic changes with the emergence of ideology reforming a social structure and people had actively expressed desire for revolution. As a result, in the 19th century, Chosun faced historical turning point would abolish social status discrimination strongly placed before that. In this situation, tangible economic interest started taking center stage, while moral value based on ideological confucianism continued to be fading. The new power structure that wealth attainment replaces the existing status system was emerged and this social transition led to the trend peony paintings attracted the public. The reason peony paintings drew attention in the 19th century can be explained with two factors. First, intellectuals were allowed for the first time to seek wealth as a virtue, and second, throughout the society, the trend of pursuing wealth widely spreaded in the 19th century.