국보 〈송시열 초상〉의 이상화 양상

Abstract

This essay discusses how the Portrait of Song Siyeol, now in the National Museum of Korea, Seoul (henceforth referred to as National Treasure No. 239), idealized Song Siyeol (1607-1689) through two methods: text and image. Two texts written on the painting, Song’s own inscription and a poem by King Jeongjo (r. 1776–1800), were borrowed from other paintings to legitimate National Treasure No. 239 and eventually Song himself, the subject of the painting. According to the painting’s accompanying text, Song’s inscription, a hwasang jagyeong (self-admonishing portrait inscription), was composed by Song himself at the Hwayang Pavilion in 1651. The Hwayang Pavilion, however, did not exist in 1651; Song’s hwasang jagyeong was therefore most likely written much later, in 1683 when Song had an opportunity to view another portrait of his by the renowned court painter Han Sigak (1620–after 1690). Moreover, the poem attributed to King Jeongjo was originally penned by King Sukjong (r. 1674–1720) as an inscription for a portrait of Jeong Mongju (1338–1392). The painting disguised this poem as written by Jeongjo in 1778 when he enshrined Song Siyeol into the king Hyojong’s (r. 1619–1659) room in Jongmyo (Royal Confucian Shrine). The decision to incorporate these texts reflects the high esteem that Song was accorded during the reign of Jeongjo and represents one method of idealization at work in the painting. The image of Song depicted in National Treasure No. 239 also aims to idealize Song Siyeol through the use of specifically codified imagery. The physiognomy found in this painting, depicting Song as an ideal nobleman, is entirely different from the more realistic portrayal of Song that is found in his earliest portraits, which date from the late seventeenth to the early eighteenth centuries. The iconography of, and drawing techniques for, Song’s sim’ui bokgeon (formal Confucian dresses) also adopt abstract and conceptual styles that do not belong to any period from the late Joseon dynasty. National Treasure No. 239’s idealization of Song through the synthesis of diverse iconographies and drawing techniques taken from several periods has resulted in the coexistence of heterogeneous styles within a single painting: from the flat and unadorned style of the seventeenth century, to the realistic and graphic style of the eighteenth century, to even the ideological and archaistic style of the early nineteenth century. The deployment of these dual methods of idealization in National Treasure No. 239 is the result of a sharp rise in enthusiasm toward commemorating and venerating Song Siyeol after the mid-to-late eighteenth century. Consequently, painters of the late Joseon dynasty began deliberately idealizing him in their works. National Treasure No. 239 is a noteworthy example of just such an act of idealization, one realized via the dual methods of text and image.