문헌기록을 통해 본 조선시대 직업화가의 성격과 평가

Abstract

This study examined the titles for professional painters in Chosŏn(朝鮮) and interpreted their social characters based on the Annals of the Chosŏn Dynasty(『朝鮮王朝實錄』) and the literature records of various literary people. It also intended to investigate how they were considered and evaluated by the painting and literary circles of their times from what perspectives. By making those research efforts, the study would shed light on the effects of their social environments on their lives as painters and ultimately build a foundation for research on their painting activities, works, and influences on the painting circles. In Chosŏn, there were two types of professional painters: one belonged to Tohwasŏ(圖畵署) and did creative activities there, and the other met the personal needs of clients in private sector. Such representative terms for them as ‘Hwagong(畵工)’, ‘Hwawon(畵員)’, and ‘Hwasa(畵師)’ were used broadly. The title ‘Hwagong’ used to refer to professional painters at a national agency for painters from the period of Three Kingdoms(三國) to Goryeo(高麗). Entering early Chosŏn, their social status was lowered by the influence of national policies including the reorganization of caste system. As a result, it deteriorated as a term to belittle painters. As the Tohwasŏ system settled down, ‘Hwawon’ which referred to its member painters, was established as an official title for its painters. In addition, ‘Hwasa’ was also used as a title of honor or euphemism for painters that copies portraits of kings and specialized professional painters. Since the late Chosŏn dynasty, both the painters of Tohwasŏ and professional painters in the private sector engaged in brisk creative activities, broadening the scope of their contribution to the history of art. Those developments became a base of the changing views of paintings fundamentally. In early Chosŏn, the literary people disparaged the paintings of Hwagong in lowly status, calling them ‘lowly talent’ and taking a closed attitude to them. In the second half of the Chosŏn, the literary people tried to escape from the convention that taboo painting activities based on the point of argument that paintings could vary according to painters. Although they accepted the Chinese theory of literati paintings that insisted on correlations between the social status of painters and their works, they diverged from the Theory of Northern and Southern Schools, which originally distinguished literati painters from professional ones and thus focused on emphasizing the superiority in the former and disparaging the latter. Instead, they maintained a flexible attitude, believing that paintings could vary according to the social status and character of painters and the goals and significance of their creative activities. The shift in the perspective on paintings and painters not only proposed the justification and validity of painting activities to the literary people in the second part of Chosŏn, but also created an opportunity to abstain from unconditionally disparaging professional painters based on their social status and look at them from an objective perspective. Leading the painting circles of their time, literary people and literati painters devoted themselves to their painting activities and formed a human network by learning under professional painters to instill vitality in the growth of painting circles. It eventually became an important driving force to meet the various needs of painting consumers and lead the diversification of painting circles through the painting activities of professional painters.