This photo, provided by the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation, shows"The Joyous Banquet of Guo Ziyi" before conservation (up) and after conservation (bottom).
This photo, provided by the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation, shows a part of "The Joyous Banquet of Guo Ziyi."
This photo, provided by the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation, shows "Jeungsanhyeongapjasiknamjeongan."
SEOUL, May 30 (Yonhap) -- The conservation process of the painting "The Joyous Banquet of Guo Ziyi," of the Joseon Dynasty, owned by a museum in the United States has been completed in its home country.
The Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation (OKCHF) announced on the 30th that it has finished the conservation process of "The Joyous Banquet of Guo Ziyi," owned by the Art Institute of Chicago through the Jung-jae Conservation Center.
It is estimated that "The Joyous Banquet of Guo Ziyi," was made in the late 19th century, and is an 8-panel folding screen. It measures to 430.8 cm in width and 187.1cm in height. It was acquired by William James Calhoun (1848-1916), a prominent corporate attorney and government official who served as the United States Ambassador to the Chinese Empire, and had it donated to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1940 by his bereaved family.
The Joyous Banquet of Guo Ziyi is a painting of Guo Ziyi (郭子儀, 697-781), a wealthy Tang dynasty general who lived to an advanced age, enjoying a lavish party in his later years with his family at his spacious home.
Guo became a government figure symbolizing success, longevity, and children's prosperity. This painting was also popular during the late Joseon, and was produced in large quantities for members of the royal family and upper classes as gilsanghwa (paintings drawn to depict human's original desires and realistic expectations).
According to Kim So-young's master's thesis submitted to The Academy of Korean Studies in 2019, there are 47 pieces of The Joyous Banquet of Guo Ziyi in and outside the Korea. There are some pieces preserved in the United States, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Honolulu Museum of Art.
The one at the Art Institute of Chicago are praised for the excellent brushstrokes and the relatively well-preserved colors.
Kang Im-san, head of the Support and Utilization Department of the Overseas Cultural Heritage Foundation, explained, "I think that the overall composition, material composition, color, character description, and expression of various decorative elements have a high level of formality and high level enough to be used in the royal family."
"The overall composition, material, color, character description, and the expression of various decorative elements has a quality so high that it could be used at the royal palace," Kang Imsan, the manager at the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation explained.
"While investigating the collection, we realized that the condition was bad as it had never been preserved," said Chee Yeonsoo, an associate curator of Korean Art at the Art Institute of Chicago who also worked as the curator and director of exhibitions and publicity at the National Palace Museum of Korea. "I think the conservation process went well."
During the preservation process, it was confirmed that administrative documents from the 1860s, including "Jeungsanhyeongapjasiknamjeongan" and "jongmyosawolgunsaeksosik" were used as "Baejeopji (papers that were used for the backing up of papers)." Jeungsanhyeongapjasiknamjeongan was analyzed to be a document investigating the military service of men living around Jeungsan-hyeon, Pyeongnam in 1864 and the jongmyosawolgunsaeksosik is estimated to have been written in 1867.
The Art Institute of Chicago plans to exhibit The Joyous Banquet of Guo Ziyi in the special exhibition "Among Friends and Family" from July 2nd till September 25th featuring four artifacts from Korea, Chinese and Japan.
"Last year was the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Asian Department at the Art Institute of Chicago," said curator Chee Yeonsoo. "Keeping in mind that people were not able to properly gather due to COVID-19, we have decided to introduce works that contain scenes from the banquets of the three countries in East Asia."
The Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation has been supporting the preservation, restoration and utilization of overseas cultural assets since 2013. So far, it has supported the preservation and treatment of 105 cultural assets from 26 institutions in 9 countries.
(This article is translated from Korean to English by Haemin Kim.)