Albums of Narrative Figure Paintings

This album is a collection of paintings depicting ancient Chinese tales. It consists of four volumes—won (元), hyeong (亨), yi (利), and jeong (貞)—with a total of sixty-four paintings, sixteen in each volume. The cover bears the inscription Hwabo (畫譜, “painting manual”), suggesting the influence of illustrated books published in seventeenth-century China, such as Master Gu's Painting Album and Illustrated Poems of the Tang Dynasty (唐詩畫譜, 1620). The names of painters, including Jang Deukman, Jin Jaehae, and Jin Jaegi (秦再起), are inscribed below the paintings, indicating the participation of multiple court painters during King Yeongjo’s reign. The paintings depict historical rulers, sages, and immortals, as well as scenes from classic novels, such as Water Margin (水滸誌) and Journey to the West (Xiyou ji, 西遊記), making the album both didactic and entertaining.