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Reinventing the Past: Antiquarianism in East Asian Art and Visual Culture—Part 1 |
< Back From Ambivalence to Indulgence: The Moral Geography of Collectors in Late Chosŏn Korea Chin-Sung Chang The Metropolitan Museum of Art This paper explores issues of non-attachment and obsession in the collecting culture of eighteenth-century Korea through close examination of three portraits: A Portrait of a Literatus Seeking Delight in the Arts and A Portrait of a Literatus by Kim Hong-do (1745-ca. 1806), and Portrait of Yun Tong-soŏm by an anonymous painter. These portraits relate directly to the conflicting and complex attitudes towards the possession of antiques. Non-attachment constitutes the essence of Confucian moralistic practice in the appreciation and possession of works of art. It refers to the refined tastes of scholar-collectors in collecting antique works. For scholar-collectors, collecting antiques serves as a means of self-cultivation. Obsession indicates, however, the intense engagement of aficionados with the material value of collectibles. The late Chosŏn period was a time of prosperity in which the collecting of luxury goods and antiques became a distinctive component of the culture of consumption. Both the rise of nouveaux riches from the non-ruling classes and the formation of a large antique market during the period played a significant role in creating excessive competition in the acquisition of collectibles. As the nouveaux riches began to wield their power and influence in the antique market, the conflicting views of non-attachment and obsession in collecting became an important issue for the moral geography of collectors. A close analysis of A Portrait of a Literatus Seeking Delight in the Arts and Portrait of Yun Tong-sŏom reveals how the contradiction of non-attachment and obsession is intricately embedded in the ambivalent mindset of a scholar-collector who is struggling to compromise the moralist and materialist approaches to possessing antiques. While constrained by Confucian morality, the scholar-collector is fascinated with the delight of possession of expensive antiques and the appeal of an extravagant life. A Portrait of a Literatus, on the other hand, shows a young nouveau riche who finds pleasure in the conspicuous consumption of luxury goods and antiques, demonstrating his wealth and power through the ostentatious display of his possessions. This portrait reveals the inauguration of a period in which the indulgence of aficionados in luxurious collectibles gains wide currency in society and begins to replace the Confucian mentality of non-attachment. The shift from ambivalence to indulgence in possessing antiques indicates the collapse of the moralist principle of scholar-collectors and the rise of the materialist attitude of aficionados in an age of conspicuous consumption. |
