한양대학교박물관 소장 <海上群仙圖> 연구

Abstract

Saints Crossing the Sea shows a group of saints that have each own unique value in terms of praying for good luck. The artists seem to have wanted to wish for more diverse kinds of fortune at a time by putting in a group of several saints instead of one or two with certain abilities. Housed at Hanyang University Museum, the painting is the joint work between Jo Seok-jin and Ahn Jung-shik, the number of whose joint works is not very big. Among the few joint works, the painting is regarded as one of their masterpieces and the fruit of their devoted work. On the canvas, there are the names of each icon, poems to describe them, and the motivation for and the date of painting. Those records grant the painting huge value since they provide some hints about the phenomenon of the work and the style characteristics of the same kind of painting those days. The analysis results of its icons and style reveal that Jo painted the background and Ahn the figures and wrote the title. On the right of the title are the two painters' four red rectangular seals. What's also interesting about the painting is that it presents new icons not seen from the old paintings of saints crossing the sea. In the painting, the two artists were under the huge influence of the Shanghai School while following Jang Seung-eop's style in many ways. It's pointed out that Jo and Ahn created works that were connected to the style of Jang and that of the Shanghai School. Their Saints Crossing the Sea shows closer connections to the Shanghai School than Jang's style, which suggests that the two artists graduated from Jang's style that they had learned as students. Their Saints Crossing the Sea claims great significance in that it inherited the tradition of Chosun's paintings of saints crossing the sea, which kind of painting had been constantly created from the middle to the end of the dynasty, and that it's a good example of Taoist and Buddhist figure paintings with the powerful reflection of Korean traits.