조선시대 회화에 나타난 侍童像의 類型과 表象 - 煎茶像을 중심으로 -

Abstract

Boy attendants, as slaves of elderly masters in the hierarchial society, were often seen in the Joseon's paintings(1392-1910). They could be categorized as apprentice-like errand boys spending time together for learning generally from a highly educated and revered nobleman, unlike Western apprenticeship for vocational training following their lofty scholars, boy attendants attending nearby during the masters' meditation in their outing and assistants serving various kinds of events for main characters. Their typical styles were generally portrayed as having double topknots or disheveled hair, and being dressed simply in jackets with shorter coat strings and narrow-legged pants for lower-ranked men. Male maids brewing herbal teas, as one of the most representative boy attendants, were crouching besides steel stoves, using dried kindling woods, and fanning the stove's hot air, while the wealthy and noble were amusing themselves with refined tastes like writing poems or reading books in figurative paintings about ancient stories. They also had their presence in Elegant Assembly Paintings in the late Joseon(1700-1850), which were involved with the influx of painting manuals in the late 17th century. It is notable that male maids brewing teas have come to work as a main character in the paintings dealing with the elixir of life. The boy attendants wearing gray-colored overcoats with a fastened strap, looked quite serious and serene, as if they were beyond the roles of attendants, even yielding an atmosphere of infant prodigies who were mentally-disciplining themselves in yearning to be awakened by the elevated truths of the universe. As teas were considered as an indispensible implement of gaining the ideal goal of pure conversation as a spiritual exercise as well as improving mental functions, they, in charge of tea-brewing, became a pictorial symbol for elegant assemblies and societies for sharing ancient stories. The good-mannered and polite boy servants accompanying their masters, definitely struggled to learn from their moral integrity, like hermits in the city of perfect gentlemen and were ready to revere the sophisticated spirituality.