Like Life: Royal Portraits of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) in Ritual Context

Abstract

This dissertation examines the functions and meanings of Joseon royal portraits by investigating them in light of the material culture and the ritual practices of royal ancestor worship in royal portrait halls, where offerings of wine and food were presented before portrait paintings for royal ancestral rites. This study classifies portrait halls as either official or informal, depending on their inclusion in or exclusion from the official state rites and goes on to discern the different features and functions of specific portrait halls through in-depth investigation of the ritual goods used therein and the interior settings and adornment of the halls. By distinguishing repositories, where portraits were not formally worshipped, from portrait halls, it also offers case studies of portraits in the repositories and illuminates their original function and distinctive character in form and style. The first chapter focuses on the way the early Joseon court legitimated the rituals for the portrait halls of King Taejo and King Sejo by incorporating them into the state rites, which drew on Confucian textual traditions rooted in Chinese antiquity. It demonstrates that the principle of “serving the dead as if they were alive” shaped both the ritual practice and the material culture of portrait worship and resulted in the adoption of contemporary secular objects for use as offering vessels and furnishings in the portrait halls. The second chapter elucidates the functions of Yeonghuijeon, Jangnyeongjeon, and Hwaryeongjeon, the official portrait halls of the late Joseon and discusses the ways the status of individual halls was expressed through the material goods used in their rituals and physical environment. The third chapter concentrates on the distinguishing, exceptional features of Seonwonjeon, the informal portrait hall for the royal family in the inner quarter of the palace. Through an analysis of its material culture, this chapter addresses the origin of Seonwonjeon and identifies the distinguishing features and functions of the hall that arose out of popular customs and religious traditions other than state rites. Within this overarching scheme, the fourth chapter considers the issues of status and formality related to the displayed portraits as objects of worship in specific portrait halls. Recognizing the commemorative and “quasi-public” function of official portrait halls, it also examines the Joseon concepts of “rulership” embodied by the portraits displayed in them and the way the visual formulas for these portraits changed over the course of the dynasty. For the latter, I use the history of the imperial portraits of the Ming Dynasty as a foil. The fifth chapter notes the emergence of several repositories in the late Joseon period and discusses portraits of certain late Joseon kings that were installed in the repositories. It argues that these portraits functioned not only as stand-ins for the kings but also served broader political agendas.