Unveiling the Rich History and Techniques Behind Dancheong
Have you ever seen through the media that the roofs and columns were decorated with colorful patterns when you were exposed to old Korean temples or Joseon-era palaces? This is called dancheong. It is the art of drawing or coloring patterns with the five colors (blue, red, yellow, white, and black) on wooden buildings. Dancheong includes coloring your crafts and sculptures in a wide range.
Dancheong is also used in other art genres today thanks to its colorful beauty. The music video for "DDU-DU DDU-DU," a song by the idol group Blackpink released in 2018, features a set decorated with dancheong in the background. The music video recorded 2.1 billion views as of April 2024.
Since when has Dancheong been used in traditional Korean buildings?
Dancheong is old enough to appear in the murals of Goguryeo tombs in Korean architecture. The "Three Kingdoms Sagi," which records the history of Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla, says that when the pine trees painted on the wall of Hwangryongsa Temple by artist Solger faded, the temple's monk repaired them with Dancheong. Dancheong was also used to decorate temples during the Three Kingdoms Period.
How is Dancheong different from the general design?
Dancheong has a clear purpose. Besides decorating buildings, Dancheong also protects wood. Buildings made of wood are vulnerable to insects, fungi, and weather changes. To protect their skin, Dancheong is applied to wood as if putting on makeup. Dancheong is classified into flower-shaped flower garlands to symbolize good things such as longevity and happiness, geometry using various shapes, and Geumsu-moon to model animal figures such as phoenix, giraffe, and dragon. Each pattern also has symbolic meaning. For example, a flower garland is rich in value, a Taepyeonghwa is Taepyeongdae, a woman's head flower is full of flowers, lotus flowers are created, Japanese apricot flowers are a ruler, and chrysanthemums are genuine.
What tools were used to paint Dancheong?
Dancheong experts have many tools, but they are largely pigments and brushes. They are often known to use the five colors in the case of pigments, but in reality, 15 to 16 pigments are used. This is because there are colors slightly lighter or darker than the five colors depending on the saturation and brightness. The brush is made of pig hair, so the texture is very stiff.
To apply Dancheong to a wooden building, you go through several steps, similar to putting on makeup. First, wash your face, and just as you remove dead skin cells, clean the side you want to apply Dancheong on and sand it. This is called wiping the cotton. And apply melted glue to the side in lukewarm water to prepare the pigment to stick well. It's similar to applying toner and lotion before makeup. After that, just like applying makeup base, paint the color that will serve as the base before you start coloring. After you finish putting on basic makeup, you put in the pattern and color it. Drawing the outline with ink lines and dotted lines on the pattern that has been colored is similar to drawing eyeliner. Lastly, applying glue to prevent Dancheong from fading out easily can be thought of spraying a makeup fixer to prevent makeup from being erased well.
If you look at the rafters painted with dancheong, you can see that the same pattern was repeatedly used. This is not drawn one by one, but the pattern is copied by drilling a needle hole and then spraying powder. No matter how many columns there are, you can draw the exact pattern over and over again. The most difficult part of the dancheong work is drawing the pattern corresponding to the first draft. This is because the completeness of the result depends on the degree of pattern completion. Dancheong requires the hands of many artisans.
Unveiling the Rich History and Techniques Behind Dancheong
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