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The Surface and the Line Main Menu

Chaekgeori

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This four-panel screen represents the Korean still-life genre, chaekgeori, which features objects that would be found in a scholar’s study. Brushes, inkstones and books point to the importance of learning in Joseon society. Along with these tools of study, collectible items, many with Chinese origins, are featured notably and often set upon custom-made stands. Most scholars of the era aspired to possess antique foreign items, such as bronze incense burners and archaic forms of pottery from China. The objects that appear here are fairly standard, in that they can be found across the genre of chaekgeori screens. This particular painting tradition, which treats objects as worthy of sustained visual focus, began in the late 18th century in the Joseon period, possibly influenced by western painting traditions that came to Korea by way of Qing China. Although the items seem to float in space and some are not rendered to scale, various illusionistic techniques have been deployed to indicate depth. For instance, the stacked books recede along a shared orthogonal axis. By contrast, rounded objects are rooted into their settings by conveying a robust sense of volume, but without casting shadows. Additionally, a book is held open, secured by its own weight, a strategy that suggests that the forces of gravity are at work. Joseon Korea was a deeply Neo-Confucian society that valued simplicity and starkly rejected materialism and all of its pretensions. The chaekgeori, as a genre, thus teetered on a fine line. It expressed the social propriety of learned men along with their acts of conspicuous consumption, which could be conceived as morally questionable.

For more examples of screens like this one, check out the examples in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago.

See if you can spot the various objects that are featured in the screen!

Four-sided vase with landscapes painted on each side
Green water pot on a stand (Hint: there is a red handle sticking out of the top and it is near the other writing accessories like the brushpot and inkstone)
Ceramic brushpot with a crackled surface
Paper scroll wound in a silk cover and tied with string
Yixing teapot from China, made of matte brown stoneware
Ornamental inkstone with a flattened central depression (Hint: the shape is irregular, perhaps to represent the natural shape of a pond)
Fish-shaped water dropper raised on a tall stand
Two small spades used to clear the ash from an incense burner (Hint: they havecurved necks and each accompanies a pair of chopsticks)
Three-tiered lunch container made of tortoise shell with a red tassel
Blue porcelain vessel that stands on three legs with a spout, a handle, a green lid, and a gilded dragon on its surface
Vessel made of root wood, hollowed out to serve as a container
Porcelain wine dispenser with a long thin neck

Click "Here they are" for the answers!

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A Collection Spanning Centuries Nancy Um
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The Surface and the Line: Alumni Gifts of Asian Art Gabrielle Bonilla
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A Collection Spanning Centuries

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