한국의 사찰벽화 : 시대별 장엄요소와 표현 영역

Abstract

Decorating the Buddhist halls is one of the representative ways to materialize the Buddha's land. The Buddhist mural painting, same as the Buddhist temple, is an important visual heritage in that it can identify the history, character, and the intention of decorating buildings. In the ancient Three Kingdoms and the Unified Silla period, the themes of Buddhist mural paintings were focused mainly on the Jataka and stories about the Nidana. These topics seems to changed to the images of Buddhas or paintings for worship in the late 7th and early 8th century. In the medieval Goryeo Dynasty, large numbers of high quality Buddhist murals were painted. However, mural paintings of Brahma, Indra Sakra and the Four Devas in the Chosa-hall at the Pusok temple are the only and the best examples that of the Goryeo Dynasty. Around 14the century, it is presumed that the center of decorating Buddhist halls gradually moved from the mural painting to the hanger painting. In the Joseon Dynasty, Buddha's figures for worship were depicted on the main wall, left and right side walls of the main Buddhist hall. There were the examples in which Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva by itself or Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva and Dharma together were painted on the back of the main wall. Moreover, various themes such as Buddha, Buddhist buildings, folk tales, etc. were painted on the walls in the Buddhist halls. On the other hand, in terms of the expressional realm of the Buddhist murals in the Joseon Dynasty, there were the principle of arranging the icons and layout according to the vertical and horizontal structures of the wall in all directions applies to the Buddhist sanctum. First, Buddha or Bodhisattva were mainly painted on the main wall in the Buddhist sanctum for the purpose of worship. On the back of the main wall, Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva by itself or Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva and Dharma together were depicted on the back of the main wall(total thirteen works). However, there are some factors to consider as a reason to depict the Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva murals the back wall of the main wall corresponding to the Buddhist sanctum. 1)The Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva is a symbolic representation of a figure who sees the darkness and breaks the world of darkness and unknown. 2)The back of the main wall is the narrowest and darkest place in the Buddhist hall that connects to the image of the dark cave, main residence of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva in the The Heritage of the Three States. Therefore, the darkest space behind the main wall is a spatial device for expressing the dark cave. In addition, the way the walls are finished with black color or adding colors on the dark colored walls were visual devices for expressing the darkest cave. Second, the arrangement area according to the vertical structure and the horizontal structure of each Buddhist hall need thorough reviews. The vertical structure is an example of showing the hierarchy of the superiority. On the other hand, the horizontal structure is a way of horizontally arranging or displaying the equal hierarchical position. It seems that it is effective for the narrative paintings expressing many stories in compressed time as well as for paintings of the multi-Buddhas.