Korean Ideograph (Munjado) Painting

Antiques: Regional Art: Asian: Korean: Paintings Pre 1900: item #275794
53-58

This mid 19th century Korean munjado folk painting represents the Confucian value of honor and justice. Ink and slight color on paper, it is matted with silk and framed with a traditional Korean rounded frame. The ideograph, called munjado, is a stylized graphic rendering of a Chinese character. Chinese characters, rather than Korean Hangul characters, were used in Korean arts for many years after the country's official language became Hangul. This particular character may have been used to rep... Click for details

A Fine Original 19thC Korean Hunting Scene Watercolor.

Antiques: Regional Art: Asian: Korean: Paintings Pre 1910: item #267962

An excellent late 19thC Korean watercolor dipecting a hunting scene in the mountains of Korea.The colorful costumes of the hunters are typical of the dress for that period.The artist is unknown but his talent in the field of watercolor is unmistakable.The condition is very good with only a small tear above the back feet of the white horse do to the handling of the picture.. The piece is framed in a traditional oriental rosewood frame.Period:19thC,Choson Dynasty. Size:9 1/2"in width and 45 1/... Click for details

Korean Landscape on Silk, Framed

Antiques: Regional Art: Asian: Korean: Paintings Pre 1920: item #266694
53-46

Signed and sealed by Korean painter Chun Jun, this early 20th century traditional landscape has softness and charm. It shows a woman dressed in red waiting on the veranda of her house on the mountain. The master, on horseback, is seen lower in the painting with a servant as they approach a bridge leading toward the mountain. In traditional Asian landscape form, the figures are depicted as secondary and insignificant against the magnificent trees and towering cliffs of the mountain. The silk on w... Click for details

Manchurian Cranes Painting, Korea, 1840

Antiques: Regional Art: Asian: Korean: Paintings Pre 1900: item #173551
53-41

The Manchurian cranes and ancient pine tree in this 150-year-old Korean painting have been used throughout Asia for centuries as symbols to convey wishes for long life and happy marriage. The two red-headed cranes were adopted as emblems of both longevity and fidelity because cranes mate for life and were believed to live well beyond 600 years of age. The pine tree was used as a symbol of long life since it is forever green. Red trumpet flowers and touches of blue on the old tree trunk and in t... Click for details

Munjado Screen, Yi Dynasty, Korea

Antiques: Regional Art: Asian: Korean: Paintings Pre 1910: item #168041
22-17

From late 18th/early 19th century Korea, the striking characters on this four-panel folding screen represent four principles of Confucian morality. The paintings are called "munjado" and were used in Yi Dynasty households to teach Confucian virtues to children as well as to serve as daily reminders to adults about values they should uphold. Confucian ideals were then and still are exceptionally important in Korean society. The four Confucian principles represented on this screen are, left to rig... Click for details

Yi Dynasty Scholars Painting

Antiques: Regional Art: Asian: Korean: Paintings Pre 1900: item #147960
53-44

Two scholars and a sleeping servant boy are painted on loose-weave silk in this mid 19th century Korean work. In strong light, the large unpainted silk area above the subjects takes on a rich gold sheen. A scholar's rock in an unusual shape rests on a container of pebbles in the foreground. The position of the scholars to one side contemplating objects not shown in the painting, plus the absence of an artist's seal suggests this was part of a larger piece, but the silk mat appears to be about th... Click for details

Korean Temple Painting

Antiques: Regional Art: Asian: Korean: Paintings Pre 1900: item #140810
53-60

Seven Buddhas, each representing a star in the Big Dipper, appear in this very large painting from a Korean Buddhist temple wall, along with a another central Buddha, a god of the sun, god of the moon and eleven Shamanist and Taoist gods. Both the painting itself and the major Buddha figure are called "Chilsong," the Korean name for the Big Dipper. Reverence for celestial bodies was rooted in Taoism and Shamanism, then incorporated into Korean Buddhism. The Big Dipper was regarded as especially ... Click for details

San-shin, Korean Mountain Spirit

Antiques: Regional Art: Asian: Korean: Paintings Pre 1900: item #140300
53-61

San-shin, the mountain god, is the subject of this very large 19th century stone color on canvas painting that once hung in a Korean Buddhist temple. A special area was set aside in most temples to honor the mountain spirit, which was gradually absorbed into Korean Buddhism from shamanistic belief beginning around the 15th century in the early Chosen Period. Temple paintings of San-shin always show an old man and a tiger. The mountain spirit is not exclusively the old man or the tiger, but is re... Click for details