19세기 감로도의 인물상에 보이는 새로운 양상

Abstract

Gamnodo, a painting genre which emerged during the Joseon Dynasty, has as its theme the emancipation of the so-called mujugohon (forlorn wandering spirits with no posterity) from the bondage of pain and suffering to which they are subjected, through Buddha’s grace, symbolized by a sweet beverage called “gamno.” This genre remained current for nearly four hundred years, from the late 16th century to the early 20th century. Of the many paintings produced on this theme, about sixty have survived to the present, some located in Korea and some others overseas. Gamnodo, which may be translated into ‘nectar ritual paintings,’ were aimed at guiding forlorn spirits back to the spirits’ world. These paintings had common iconographic elements and stylistic traits that were recognizable, regardless of the place or time of production. This stable tradition, however, underwent major changes starting from the late 19th century. Nectar ritual paintings produced around this time, in Buddhist temples located in Seoul and its environs, depart from works from previous periods of time, in style and also in some of the iconographic details. New types of human figures, never seen in previous nectar ritual paintings, make their appearance from this point on. Previously, the only human figure portrayed was the forlorn wandering spirit, given a brief visual incarnation in the scene of the former life, at the moment of his passing. Paintings produced from the late 19th century, meanwhile, introduce other human figures, depicted in their everyday environment, rather than in an abstract and timeless setting. In depicting a forlorn spirit at the final moment of his past life, Joseon artists could have felt it necessary to invoke at least some of the everyday context surrounding his existence and the conclusion thereof. However, real life scenes introduced into nectar ritual paintings from this period are, at times, much more than simple deathbed scenes; they are close to scenes from genre paintings, capturing the lifestyles and customs of an era. This seems to have been the result of a desire on the part of the authors of these paintings to portray their society and the time in which they lived. The budding urban culture developing in Seoul, since the 18th century, brought about subtle changes in lifestyle in this region, and these changes, echoed in literature and paintings, appear to have also influenced more conservative genres such as religious paintings. Also remarkable is the magnified importance of the scene of the nectar ritual, now depicted like a large open‐air banquet or event. These new trends, although they failed to give rise to a constructive or transformative process in subsequent periods, are nevertheless significant as attempts to reflect contemporary lifestyles and customs in a painting genre having an abstract and timeless theme. In this paper, I discuss ritual nectar paintings from the 19th century as iconographic records with a special ethos, by focusing on various human figures making a new appearance in the lower section of these paintings.