Culture Korean
Title Books and Scholars' Possessions
Date 1930–1945
Medium Ink and color on paper
Dimensions Image (each painting): 42 × 15 in. (106.7 × 38.1 cm)
Overall (mounted): 67 1/2 × 160 in. (171.5 × 406.4 cm)
Credit Line Museum purchase with funds from the Thomas T. Solley Endowed Fund for Asian Art, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Accession Number 2018.1
About this Work
Stacks of books and other objects associated with knowledge and scholarly pursuits, including notebooks, writing implements, and eyeglasses, are neatly stacked together with ceramics, fruits, and flowers on each panel of this folding screen. Aristocratic Korean collectors and scholars used these carefully curated still life paintings, known as munbangdo or chaekgeori (books and things), to display their erudition, sophistication, and taste.
Munbangdo emerged in the late eighteenth century, a time of peace and stability in Korea after the destructive Manchurian and Japanese invasions of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The objects depicted in this genre often convey auspicious symbolism and reveal a fascination with foreign goods resulting from expanded global trade. Munbangdo continued to enjoy popularity through the mid-twentieth century.
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Chaekgeori or Scholar’s screens such as this one, can loosely be described as a still life genre painting suitable for the scholar or any other individual wishing to visually inform others of their erudition, sophistication and taste. The earliest known Chaekgeori screens date to the late eighteenth century, a time of peace and stability after the destructive Manchurian and Japanese invasions of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. With increased prosperity art patrons and scholars could once again enjoy the accoutrements of a genteel life. This type of painting continued to enjoy popularity through the mid-twentieth century.
