Portrait of Songsiyeol

Basic information

Designation

Treasure No.2128

Category

Painting

Era

18세기 전반

Designated year

2021

Location

제천시, 충청북도— 충청북도 제천시 의림대로47길 7 (모산동, 의림지역사박물관)

Coordinates

37.176130, 128.209516Kakao address conversion

This English description was machine-translated and may contain inaccuracies. Refer to the original Korean text for details.

The "Portrait of Song Si-yeol" is a portrait of Song Si-yeol (宋時烈, 1607–1689), a master of Neo-Confucianism who left a distinct mark on politics and learning during the mid-Joseon period. This is a work whose history of being enshrined for over 300 years at Hwanggang Yeongdang (黃江影堂) in Jecheon is well documented. Although Song Si-yeol held high office, he is depicted not as a bureaucrat but as a pure Confucian scholar wearing a sabanggeon (四方巾, a square-shaped hat) and simui (深衣, the everyday attire of Confucian scholars). At the top of the work, the inscription "Uam Songseongsaeng Chilsipsasejin (尤庵宋先生七十四歲眞)" is written in seal script. On the right side of the image is a colophon on the portrait (hwasangchan) written in regular script by Kim Chang-hyeop, which reveals that the portrait of Song Si-yeol was painted by the literati painter Kim Chang-eop (金昌業). On the left side is a colophon written in regular script, composed by Kwon Sang-ha (權尙夏, 1641–1721) and transcribed by his disciple Chae Ji-hong (蔡之洪, 1683–1741). Through these inscriptions, we can understand that this work was created based on an original sketch drawn in 1680 by the 23-year-old Kim Chang-eop depicting the 74-year-old Song Si-yeol. The painting is mounted in hanging scroll format and uses a single piece of seamless silk as the picture surface. It depicts a half-length portrait of a figure wearing a square gray sabanggeon and a gray simui with black-edged collar and cuffs, both hands clasped together and placed inside the sleeves. The face is striking with its graying mustache and beard, sideburns, and deep wrinkles across the forehead and eyes, as if embodying the turbulent course of Song Si-yeol's life. While the long white and black beard is rendered in fine detail and the eyebrows are drawn dark and thick, the contrasting brushwork—with the detailed rendering of wrinkles and shading on the face in yellowish-brown tones, while the clothing is drawn boldly and summarily in thick dark ink lines—comprehensively conveys Song Si-yeol's appearance, bearing, and character. Many portrait paintings of Song Si-yeol, numbering approximately thirty, have been transmitted to posterity as he continued to be revered in later generations; among these, this work is considered an outstanding example, based on the original sketch painted by Kim Chang-eop and presumed to have been painted by such leading portraitists of the time as Jin Jae-hae (奏再奚, 1691–1769).

Location