경주 사천왕사지 출토 녹유신장벽전의 제작기법 고찰

Abstract

This study is focused on the Green-glazed Tiles of Buddhist Guardian Deities known to have been made by a Silla's great monk artist named Yangji and excavated at the Sacheonwangsa Temple Site in Gyeongju. The tiles consisted of three types, A, B and C, and were installed in order around the base of a wooden pagoda. In other words, the square base of the wooden pagoda had 6 tiles on one side and, hence, 24 tiles in total. The study presents illustrations showing the restored wall tiles divided in three types. The illustrations of the newly restored tiles provide new information of some details of the guardians carved on the tiles such as an arrowhead on the tiles of Type B and a helmet ornament on the tiles of Type C. The study also deals with the techniques used to make green-glazed wall tiles in three types. All the tiles are presumed to have been made via filling clay in the molds of double structure, inner and outer molds. Some tiles contain finger marks made during the manufacturing process, showing that the clay was pressed into the mold. Archaeologists discovered marks of finger tips pressed on the tiles, but found no mold that can tell the material of which it was made. Archaeologists also found after the excavation of the green-glazed tiles that there were differences in the structures and manufacturing techniques of the tiles of the three types. Makers of the Type A tiles, for instance, added more clay to the corners and made gently curved surfaces due to the significant difference in height between the niche and the decorative part. The tiles of the rest two types, however, feature, in addition to the gentle curves of the area connecting the niche and the decorative part, larger niches and smaller differences in height between the two largely due to the trails of the veil robe worn by the guardian deities. Naturally, the gentle curves of the Type B and C tiles helped make smoother surfaces without adding more clay. The question remains, however, why unlike the Type B and C tiles the Type A tiles have no robe trails, causing the difference in the structure of the niches and the manufacturing techniques. The last part of the study is focused on comparing the green-glazed wall tiles of the Sacheonwangsa Temple and the other wall tiles excavated in the Gyeongju area so far. The wall tiles discovered at the Seokjangsa Temple site have often been compared with those of the Sacheonwangsa Temple site to find out if the two were made by using the same molds. Researchers, however, have found no two Seokjangsa tiles were made from the same mold. They are puzzled by a lack of evidence to show that the use of molds is to make multiple tiles of the same type. Meanwhile, some wall tiles unearthed at the Hwangnyongsa Temple site feature the same form, clearly revealing that they were made with the same molds. These tiles seem to have been produced before the green-glazed tiles from the Sacheonwangsa Temple site. Further researches are required on the wall tiles discovered from the sites of three different temples, Hwangnyongsa, Seokjangsa and Sacheonwangsa, to have a clearer picture on the development of the decorative wall tiles of Silla.