**Reviving Vibrancy and Restoring Order: A Grand Feast from 200 Years Ago Displayed on a Folding Screen**
On a day in 1826, the area around Pyongyang, where the Pyeongan Government Office was located, was bustling. People gathered along the main streets, and boat parties were held on the river. At the center were young scholars who were about to begin their official careers. The celebration was for two individuals who excelled in the Pyeongan Province special state examination (a specialized civil service examination ordered by the province governors during the Joseon Dynasty). A painting from the Joseon era, vividly capturing the festivities held approximately 199 years ago, has overcome the passage of time and regained its original form.
The Overseas Cultural Heritage Foundation, in collaboration with the Samsung Foundation of Culture, completed the preservation work of the ‘Welcome Ceremony for the Successful Candidates of the Pyeongan Gamyeong Examination’ eight-panel folding screen, which is housed at the Peabody Essex Museum in the United States, and unveiled it on the 10th. The preservation work was conducted at the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art’s conservation laboratory for about 1 year and 4 months. The foundation explained, “Utilizing preservation techniques accumulated over 30 years, the screen was restored to its original form,” adding, “This is the first case in which a private domestic art museum has supported the preservation of cultural assets abroad.”
The ‘Welcome Ceremony for the Successful Candidates of the Pyeongan Gamyeong Examination’ folding screen is a kind of documentary painting. It captures the moments from when the candidates moved toward their boat, to the feast held at Bubeok Pavilion east of Pyongyang Fortress, and the nighttime boat party, which was the highlight of the welcoming event. When fully unfolded, the eight screens measure more than 5 meters wide and are estimated to have been created in the 19th century.
The museum explained that the artifact was purchased in 1927 with funds from banker and philanthropist George Peabody and W.C. Endicott. The ‘Welcome Ceremony for the Successful Candidates of the Pyeongan Gamyeong Examination’ folding screen was previously displayed at the special exhibition ‘Yoo Gil-jun and the Dream of Enlightenment’ at the National Museum of Korea in Seoul in 1994, but it was vastly different from now. At that time, the screen was in separated sheets, and it was difficult to determine the correct order due to the lack of remaining visuals from when it was originally made, along with significant damage and wear.
The Leeum Museum focused on restoring the picture to as complete a state as possible. Their conservation experts carefully treated the old pigments to prevent them from falling off, and removed the aged and oxidized lining paper from behind the painting. They created a frame for the screen based on various studies and investigations. During this process, the artifact’s name was clarified from ‘Pyeongan Gamsa Hyangyeondo’ to ‘Pyeongan Gamsa Dogwagubjejahwanyongdo’. The foundation representative stated, “We discovered the lost sequence of the painting and restored it to its original folding screen form based on the characters’ clothing and color changes over time.”
The foundation also announced that the ‘Hwalot’, a ceremonial robe housed at the Peabody Essex Museum, has been revived with the help of domestic experts. The Hwalot is a type of ceremonial clothing worn by women during the Joseon Dynasty. It is a garment decorated with various patterns like phoenixes and flowers on red silk, adorned with gold leaf. Since the late 19th century, it was worn during weddings not only by the royal family but also by the general populace. About 50 such garments are known to remain, with around 30 in Korea and 20 abroad. The Peabody Essex Museum’s Hwalot is estimated to be an artifact from the 18th to 19th century.
The restored ‘Welcome Ceremony for the Successful Candidates of the Pyeongan Gamyeong Examination’ folding screen and Hwalot will be on display at the Leeum Museum of Art’s M1 second-floor permanent exhibition of ancient art from March 11 to April 6. Following this, the two artifacts will be introduced as major cultural relics in the re-opening Korean gallery at the Peabody Essex Museum in May.