조선시대 감로회도의 연희 이미지

Abstract

As Lu Ji (261-303) of the Western Jin period already affirmed, pictures are widely recognized as the best medium for preserving the shape of objects. Similarly, Silla’s Choe Ch’iwŏn (857~?) said “Drawing is preferable to writing,” and Yi Kyubo (1168~1241) of Koryŏsaid that when describing an object, the effect of drawings surpassed the function of poetry because of its ability to express shapes experienced through the visual sense. Also, King Sejong (r. 1418-1450), who believed that drawings that can be seen with the eyes were “truly beneficial” in understanding reality and in moving people’s hearts, said in compiling the Samgang haengsildo that “I was concerned that the simple-minded people wouldn’t comprehend easily, so added shapes in the hope that kids playing on the road and even commoner women living on an alley would easily understand.” He was demonstrating the utilitarian use of drawings for public welfare through preserving and spreading the visual aspect of shapes of objects. Among art pieces that express shapes of objects through drawings, images related to customs and manners are especially important as they serve as detailed visual recordings that show secular and social aspects of the era before photographs appeared. Especially the images of plays and entertainment in the nectar ritual paintings, which deal with Water-Land rituals for the transfer of merit to the deceased, are valuable as visual resources for the Chosŏn Dynasty’s recreation and performance culture, along with the actors performing. What makes them even more valuable is that they deal with subjects that are not even recorded in genre painting of ‘vulgar customs.’Images of plays and entertainment have so far been mentioned only as one motif of the nectar ritual paintings, so that its real significance remains inaccurately explained or unclear. The historical meaning of the changes in the images of plays and entertainment throughout more than 300 years from the 1580s to the first half of the 20thcentury thus remains to be studied. This paper has analyzed the image of plays and entertainment depicted in around 50 of the 66 nectar ritual paintings that are known today to reveal the types of events and actors and study their changes and meaning. Two types of plays and entertainment, focusing on either acrobatics or pole climbing used to be drawn separately but eventually were depicted together in one scene, showing up as part of the performance of itinerant entertainers or shamans. Even the dress changed from the image of actors at governmental events to the various attires of artists of wandering artists who frequented markets and villages. And while at first the performers acted as substitutes for the transfer of merit, being depicted in the original shape of people who later became wandering spirits, later they appeared together with viewers at the Buddhist All Soul’s festival on the full moon of the seventh lunar month and other events as actual performers in events depicted in a kind of genre painting. Such changes are understood as reflecting how the government-centered plays and entertainments were starting to decline, and the performers sought the patronage of merchants and thus moved towards markets and commoners in order to survive.