Ahn Hwi-joon

Korean painting has developed steadily throughout its long history from the Three Kingdoms period to modern times, in spite of frequent political crises and invasions. Absorbing foreign influences, Chinese in particular, on a selective basis, Korean painting has developed its own independent styles and has influenced the development of Japanese painting. What is the relationship between traditional Korean painting and Chinese painting? While there is no question that Chinese painting stimulated the development of Korean painting, several points must be kept in mind if we are to understand the relationship between the arts of these two countries. First of all, ancient Koreans made a deliberate effort to absorb Chinese arts. Chinese painting did not appear in Korea of its own accord. From the Three Kingdoms period to the Choson period, it was customary to dispatch a professional painter along with the government envoy to China, this artist's mission being to sketch Chinese landscapes, learn new trends in Chinese painting and purchase paintings at whatever cost. Second, Koreans chose to accept only the elements they deemed beneficial to their painting and pleasing to domestic tastes. The Korean aesthetic sense was very much at work in the process of selective acceptance of foreign elements. The third and most important point is that Koreans did not stop at imitating Chinese elements but, much to their credit, always assimilated and developed them further to create artistic styles of their own. Sometimes they developed a new creation, much advanced from the Chinese original, as exemplified by the Buddhist paintings of the Koryo period and portraits, true-view landscapes and genre paintings of the Choson period. The Korean painting tradition first began to develop in the Three Kingdoms period. The three countries, Koguryo, Silla, and Paekche, developed distinct artistic styles while maintaining a close interrelationship. The paintings of Koguryo in the northern part of the Korean peninsula were marked by vitality and rhythmic movement as shown in the murals found in the tombs near Tong-gou in Manchuria and Pyongyang. Best represented in the hunting scene in the Tomb of the Dancers, this spirited style originated in the early days of the kingdom and became firmly established in the later period. Judging from these murals, painting began to develop in Koguryo around the 4th century at the latest, firmly established its own tradition by the 6th century, and matured fully in the early 7th century. The Koguryo painting style was transmitted to the Paekche Kingdom. Influenced artistically by Koguryo and the Southern Dynasties of China, especially the Liang (502-557), Paekche developed elegant and refined styles quite special to it. As exemplified by the Lotus Flowers and Flying Clouds painted in the Nungsan-ri Tomb and the ornamental tiles with landscape designs in relief, excavated from Kyuam-ri, the artistic work of Paekche is elegant and relaxed, a remarkable contrast to the dynamic Koguryo style. The style of Silla is evident in a number of paintings done on crafts, including the Heavenly Horse Painting (Ch'onmado) excavated from the Tomb of the Heavenly Horse in Kyongiu. Obviously influenced by Koguryo and Paekche, these paintings, though inferior, show qualities quite distinct from the other two countries. While the paintings of Koguryo are dynamic and rhythmic and those of Paekche elegant and refined, the paintings of Silla are somewhat speculative and staticaL Thus each of the ancient nations of the Korean peninsula developed its own style despite strong influences from China and close cultural interchanges amongst themselves. Their painting styles and tradition were transmitted to Japan and contributed to the development of ancient Japanese art. These diverse painting styles are believed to have integrated and blended into one after Silla's unification of Korea in 668, as was also the case with Buddhist sculpture and handicrafts. Ancient records, available only in fragments, indicate that portraits for the royal court's entertainment, blue-green colored landscapes, and Buddhist paintings prevailed at the time as a result of active cultural exchanges with Tang China Buddhist painting must have shared Buddhist sculpture's periodic style in its representation of Buddhist deities, as witnessed in the only extant work from that period, the frontispiece of the Avatamsaka Sutra executed around 754-755. Painting was also an important art in the other Korean kingdom of Parhae (699-926), which occupied a vast territory including Manchuria and northern Korea and rivaled Unified Silla Murals in the Tomb of Princess Chonghyo reveal a mixture of Koguryo tradition and assimilation of Tang styles.

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