• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.124-139
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• 2013

Choi Cheon-yak(about 1684~1755) is an artist who left the various artistic works such as sculptures of royal tombs, architectures. In addition, he was not only a skilled caster but also an able artisan carving jade in the early Joseon Dynasty period. Starting from making royal seals of King Suk-jong, he had made more than about 40 Royal seals until 1755. Choi Cheon-yak was well known as a skilled jade craftsman. Another of his great abilities was to carve subjects into ideal figures. In virtue of his greater abilities, he could take part in the process of constructing Royal tombs and sculpting the stone statues of military officials' which were erected at aristocrats' tombs. With these accumulated skills, when he was in charge of designing the folding screen stones for King In-jo's Jang Neong, he could even replace 12 animals system and clouds with peonies and lotus. Among his various abilities, his skill in carving a sculpture can stand comparison with any other contemporaries. His sculpture skill was at its zenith in 1752, the stone statues of military officials' at the Ui soseson's tomb count his showpiece that describes a model at the age of his late teens and is a realistic and portrayal sculpture, which met the royal family's dignity. In the same year, the stone statues of military officials' constructed by Choi Cheon-yak was elected in front of the Jo Hyen-myeong's tomb(1690~1752). This masterpiece referred to the armor of those of King Gong-min Neong and newly added a helmet and the patterns of a tortoise shell. These patterns of a tortoise shell were passed down to Park Moon-su's tomb in 1756 and Queen Jeong-sung's Hong Neung by his colleagues : Kim Ha-jeong and Byeon Yi-jin etc. He was one of the greatest sculptors in the $18^{th}$ century. People in Joseon praised him highly for his imaginative work from an amorphous object. Especially, these stone statues of military at Jo Hyeonmyeong's tomb shows the proofs of his supreme artwork.