Rediscovering the Monk-Sculptor Ch'ŏnsin: The Missing Link between the Ŭngwŏn-In'gyun and Saengnan Schools of the Honam Area in the Late Chosŏn Period

Abstract:Of the monk-sculptor groups active in the Honam area in the southwest part of the Korean Peninsula during the late Chosŏn period, the Saengnan School was the largest, both in terms of the number of artists in the group and of the works they left behind. Studies of the group have largely focused on the sculpting activities of the Buddhist monk Saengnan (fl. late seventeenth to the early eighteenth century; 1663–1709) and his followers, while little is known about the origins of the school due to a lack of records about his formative years as an assistant. The recent discovery of four Buddhist parwŏn prayer texts has revealed that Saengnan spent the early years of his career as a sculptor assisting the monk-sculptors In'gyun and Ch'ŏnsin, who were key members of the Ŭngwŏn-In'gyun School that played a central role in the production of Buddhist sculptures in the early to late seventeenth century in the region. This study shows that the Saengnan School, the most productive group of monk-sculptors from the late seventeenth to the early eighteenth century in the Honam region, was a successor to the Ŭngwŏn-In'gyun School, through a comparative examination of these highly informative prayers and relevant Buddhist sculptures. My examination also reveals that the two schools were linked by Ch'ŏnsin, who studied sculpture under In'gyun, and in turn, taught Saengnan.