• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.242-261
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• 2021

Sangjeong was a sculptor-monk who was active in the mid-to-late 18th Century, and the current study established the overall chronology of Sangjeong's Buddhist statues and their styles based on the six sculptures of Sangjeong already known and the Wooden Seated Buddha of 1767 in Songgyesa Temple, Geochang, which was found to be his last work. All of the Buddhist statues of Sangjeong have commonalities in terms of the appearance of the ears, wrinkles on clothing on the upper and lower body, position of hands, and expression of the lower body. The expression of the lower body, in particular, is classified into three types: Type A, where the clothing drapes through the lotus leaves on the bottom; Type B, with an 'S-shaped' drape over the lower body but no lotus leaves or pedestal; and Type C, with the Buddha and pedestal as a single unit, and the clothing draping through the lotus leaves on the pedestal. It appears that Sangjeong faithfully succeeded the style of Taewon, who was his only instructor for sculpture. This is verified based on the records of his participation in the creation of the Wooden Seated Sakyamuni Buddha Triad and Statue of Arhat in Bongeunsa Temple, Seoul, as the third sculptor-monk out of twelve sculptor-monks, and the reflection of the S-shaped drape on the lower body found on the statue of Buddha in Bongeunsa Temple on all of the statues created by Sangjeong. Not only that, but it was assumed that the expression of the pedestal and hair was also inherited by Sangjeong from Taewon and Jinyeol, who was a sculptor-monk from the early 18th Century. The work of Sangjeong and Taewon showed differences in the volume and thickness of statues, strength of unevenness on the wrinkles of clothing, drapes on the right side of chest, and details of the ears. The current study identified the original styles of each individual sculptor and attempted to categorize the fourteen pieces of ten Buddhist statues reflecting the styles of Sangjeong into Sangjeong-style or Taewon-style.