A Study on the Paintings of Peonies on the North Wall of Seonwonjeon Hall from the Late Joseon Period

Seonwonjeon Hall is a space where portraits of Joseon kings are enshrined and rites are held. Unlike Jongmyo Shrine, it serves as an ancestral hall for the Joseon royal family. Seonwonjeon Hall centers on the royal family lineage and has several chambers, each with a baldachin with a portrait of a king inside. A partition with the painting of the sun, moon, and five peaks is placed inside the baldachin, and paintings of peonies are set on the north wall behind the baldachin. This paper explores the characteristics and meanings of these paintings of peonies installed on the north walls in Seonwonjeon Hall during the late Joseon period. The paintings of peonies in Seonwonjeon Hall from the late Joseon period were installed during the reign of King Yeongjo at the latest. They were originally mounted in a folding screen format. During the process of repairing the hall, however, the paintings were removed from their frames and attached to four-panel folding doors and walls. While Seonwonjeon Hall was being repaired, there was an attempt to install paintings of lions and peonies brought by the Tongsinsa (the Joseon diplomatic missions to Japan). They eventually could not be installed because an artisan specialized in folding screens made a mistake while joining them. Paintings of peonies with the flowers arranged vertically along the center of the picture planes took their place instead. Three surviving paintings of peonies are presumed to have been installed in Seonwonjeon in the nineteenth century. They are currently found in the collections of the National Museum of Korea (M96), the Amorepacific Museum of Art, and Übersee-Museum Bremen in Germany. These three paintings are special for depicting peonies blown by the east wind, which is considered to be auspicious. These paintings with peonies fluttering in the wind were placed together with paintings with still peonies to complement one another. This paper conjectures that this combination is related to paintings of lotus ponds by the Chinese Piling painting school from the Song Dynasty. Peony paintings from the twentieth century are more schematized than those from preceding centuries. They show simplified patternized mounds and flowers. In particular, they are characterized by leaves with the ends marked with orange. This paper also suggests a reason for the installation of peony paintings in Seonwonjeon Hall in connection with the concept of flower viewing at Baegongnu Pavilion. This notion is related to a parent-child relationship based on blood ties and a relationship with ancestors. The paintings of peonies installed in Seonwonjeon Hall are a visual manifestation of ancestors, including the preceding kings, appreciating peonies at Baegongnu Pavilion in the world of the Daoist immortals. These paintings are presumed to be another example symbolizing the auspiciousness of peonies as flowers from the world of the Daoist immortals.

조선 후기 선원전 북벽 모란도 고찰

왕의 초상을 봉안하고 제향하는 공간인 선원전은 종묘와 달리 왕실 가묘의 성격을 지닌다. 왕실 혈통을 중심으로 한 선원전은 신실마다 당가를 두고, 그 안에 어진을 모셨는데, 당가 장자(障子)에는 오봉도를, 당가 뒤 북벽에는 모란도를 설치했다. 본 연구는 조선 후기 선원전 북벽에 설치된 모란도에 집중하여 특징과 그 의미를 추정하였다. 조선 후기 선원전 모란도는 늦어도 영조대 설치되었다. 원래 병풍의 형태였으나 선원전을 수리하는 과정에서 병풍틀에서 그림을 떼어내 분합문과 벽에 붙이는 방식으로 바뀌었다. 선원전을 수리하면서 통신사가 가져 온 <사자·모란>을 설치하려는 시도가 있었으나 병풍장의 실수로 연접이 잘못되어 설치되지 않았다. 대신 화면 중축선에 수직으로 길게 뻗은 모란도가 설치된 것으로 여겨진다. 19세기 선원전에 설치되었다고 추정되는 모란도는 총 3건으로 국립중앙박물관 소장품(M96), 아모레퍼시픽미술관 소장품, 독일 위버제브레멘박물관 소장품이다. 이들 모란도 중에는 동풍이라 불리는 상서로운 바람에 흩날리는 모란을 표현한 그림이 있어 특별한데, 바람에 흩날리는 모란도는 그렇지 않은 모란도와 함께 조합을 이루어 설치되기도 하였다. 본 연구에서는 이런 조합이 중국 송대 비릉화파의 연지도와 관련된 것이라고 추측하였다. 한편 20세기 모란도는 이전 시기보다 더 도식화되어 둔덕이나 꽃의 표현 등이 간결하고 문양화 되었으며, 특히 이파리 끝에 주황색으로 장식한 것이 특징이다. 본고에서는 모란도가 선원전에 설치된 이유를 '백옥루의 꽃구경' 일화와 관련 있다고 추정하였다. 백옥루의 꽃구경은 혈연관계에 기반하여 부모와 자식, 더 나아가 선조와의 관계까지 확장된 관념으로 선원전에 설치된 모란도는 선왕을 포함한 선조들이 선계에 있는 백옥루에서 주변 모란꽃을 감상하는 모습을 시각화한 것이며, 이는 선계의 꽃인 모란의 상서로움을 상징하는 또 다른 예로 추정하였다.