Exploring How Korea Met the World Through Chaekgeori Screens

This talk presents the Korean still life called chaekgeori, which is painted on multi-panel folding screens.  We will explore how chaekgeori may have originated from the object-as-subject art form that arose in fifteenth-century Europe and how it further evolved from open duobaoge shelves in Chinese palaces and depictions of collections in trompe l’oeil paintings by the Jesuits in Beijing churches.  In reviewing this kind of painting, we will see how large “bookshelf” chaekgeori screens developed into smaller “tabletop” chaekgeori, with associated changes in meaning, function, and aesthetic style.