Antique Two-Panel Korean Munjado Screen

This two-panel screen presents a pair of mounted Korean folk paintings in the munjado (文字圖) tradition — pictorial renderings of Chinese characters in which the strokes of each ideograph are built from, or interwoven with, symbolic imagery drawn from nature and legend. At left, a bold black character rises from a base of architectural and floral elements: a multi-tiered pavilion with a blue-banded roof, a pair of birds perched atop it, and flanking stems of peach and stylized blossom. At right, a second large character incorporates a vividly rendered fish with detailed scales and fins, accompanied by bamboo, a large red flower in bloom, and a small brown orb suspended above — motifs chosen as much for their auspicious meaning as their visual charm. Munjado paintings typically illustrate one of the eight Confucian virtues — filial piety, brotherly love, loyalty, trust, propriety, righteousness, integrity, and a sense of shame — with each character’s accompanying imagery drawn from classical stories and symbols associated with that particular virtue. The fish, for instance, is a recurring emblem of abundance, transformation, and perseverance in Korean folk painting, while architectural motifs such as the pavilion often reference filial or loyal devotion within traditional narratives. Rendered in the flattened, boldly outlined, and joyfully colored style characteristic of minhwa (Korean folk painting), these works were produced largely outside the court academy, by anonymous or itinerant painters working for a broad popular market rather than an aristocratic one. Each panel is set within a red-bordered mount and further framed by a grey wave-and-pine patterned surround, with lacquered wood edges and metal corner fittings finishing the screen as a whole — a presentation format consistent with folding screens intended for practical display within a traditional Korean home, where munjado screens were popularly used in a scholar’s study or a young person’s room as instructive, auspicious imagery. Whimsical in execution yet carrying real moral and symbolic weight, this screen offers a compact, graphically striking example of Korean folk painting, distinct in palette, style, and subject from the Japanese screens elsewhere in the collection, and would appeal particularly to collectors drawn to minhwa or to the folk-art traditions of the Joseon period. Age: 18th to early 19th century Dimensions: 110″ x 45″