이암(李巖)의 가응도(架鷹圖): 해청도의 전통과 새로운 상징

Abstract

While Falcon on a perch in the Museum of Fine Arts at Boston has been attributed to a fourteenth-century Chinese painter, Xu Ze, since the 19th century, there are six seals of Yi Am (1507-1566), a royal painter in Joseon Dynasty. The purpose of this paper is to explore the painter of the questioned painting and to reconstruct Yi Am’s practice within the contexts of royal art in the reign of King Jungjong (r. 1506-1544). Through an examination of pictorial images in Yi’s paintings and words by contemporaries of the artist, the paper seeks to understand the symbolism in Yi’s Falcon on a perch. Though the painter of Falcon on a perch is known as Xu Ze, there is few documentation about him or his authentic paintings. Most of Yuan paintings of falcon illustrate the falcon in the wild, within such a natural setting, thus it is difficult to discover the visualization of a Chinese perch. Interestingly, Falcon in the MFA is extremely close to another Falcon with the inscription by Park Young (1471-1540) in terms of the exquisite quality of falcon and perch, the brightness of colors, and Yi’s seals. Literati such as Yi Hwang (1501-1570), Sung Sechang (1481-1548), Jung Saryong (1491-1570) supported that Yi Am painted a pair of falcon paintings or screen of falcon paintings with excellent brush. Especially, Japanese painter, Kano Tanyu (1602-1674) studied and copied Yi Am’s paintings of falcon. The poem by Sung Sechang copied by Tanyu, provides good evidence that Yi painted a screen painting of falcon and Yi’s manner of painting was superior to court painter’s. Then, how did Yi Am, a member of royal descent, paint polychrome paintings of falcon in a court manner? Yi studied paintings of falcon on the basis of the tradition of Haecheongdo (painting of Korean falcon) by Joseon court painters in the early 15th century. Court painters produced Haecheongdo to make hunters capture Korean falcons, which were important tribute items for the Ming court. Following the tradition of Haecheongdo, Yi also trained the manner of bird and flower paintings by a Yuan professional painter, Wang Gongum. Wang’s paintings were circulated among the connoisseurs in the early Joseon and played a significant role in the establishment of polychrome bird and flower painting in the Joseon court. It is King Jungjong who support and encourage Yi’s practice of depicting animals reared within the palace precincts with professional manner. Under the patronage of Jungjong, Yi painted paintings of dog and puppies, falcons, but also decorative screens of flower and insects actively in his 30’s. In Yi’ Falcon on a perch, it is the lavishly decorative perch to pay much attention as an important feature in the painting. Most of scholar-officials who appreciated Yi’s paintings of falcon, described the special perch in their poems. Why was the perch apparently emphasized both verbal and visual works in the mid-16th century? Since the falcon has typically symbolized loyal officials, the stand that a falcon set on, stands for the government position or reward for official capability. Scholar-officials who appreciated Yi’s paintings, mostly belonged to the political reforming group, Sarim who were against the conservative faction in the reign of Jungjong. They suffered the same frustrations and miseries such as an exile during the purge of literati in 1519. The word, “Gayung” (a falcon on a perch) was used in contemporary officials’ poems as a metaphor of Sarim waiting for the time to recover their political power. As Sarim returned to their position at the court after 1537, Yi am might paint symbolic paintings for them. In this regard, Yi’s paintings of falcon crystallized the harmonious combination of falcon and perch and exemplified the symbolic relationship between the king and loyal officials.