<em>A King of Hell</em>, early 19th century. Ink and color on silk, Framed: 70 × 60 × 2 in. (177.8 × 152.4 × 5.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Carroll Family Collection, 2020.18.9 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.2020.18.9_overall.jpg)

A King of Hell, early 19th century. Ink and color on silk, Framed: 70 × 60 × 2 in. (177.8 × 152.4 × 5.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Carroll Family Collection, 2020.18.9 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.2020.18.9_overall.jpg)

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A King of Hell

Asian Art

MEDIUM Ink and color on silk

Place Made: Korea

DATES early 19th century

DIMENSIONS Framed: 70 × 60 × 2 in. (177.8 × 152.4 × 5.1 cm) image: 57 1/2 × 44 1/2 in. (146.0 × 113.0 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Asian Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 2020.18.9

CREDIT LINE Gift of the Carroll Family Collection

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Depiction of the Third King of Hell, King Songje, from a set of Ten Kings of Hell. A large figure of a king, enthroned at center with a writing table before him, is flanked by smaller figures of standing courtiers and boy and female attendants, some holding standards, as well as two demonic guards carrying standards. A row of stylized pastel clouds separates this group from the much smaller figures below. At the center of this lower group is an official with a long scroll, and a Buddha: this is the underworld magistrate who records a mortal's sins and then presents them to the kings of hell for judgement (he is accompanied by an assistant who holds more scrolls of records). The Buddha intercedes on behalf of the deceased, pleading for mercy. On either side of them are sinners being tortured by demons, including a man, hanging by his hair, whose tongue is being plowed by a demon with an ox-drawn plow. This torture is designed to elicit confessions of the sins committed when alive, sins that will then determine the sinner's next incarnation. Another magistrate appears at the right and at the left a pair of well-dressed gentlemen, one on a horse, converse. Red insets at the top right and bottom center contain inscriptions, the upper one in large gold characters, identifying the subject, and the lower one in smaller black characters. Paintings of the Ten Kings of Hell occupied their own hall in Korean Buddhist temples, particularly Zen Buddhist temples. The tradition of Ten Kings of Hell developed in China in the 10th century and is described in a non-canonical Buddhist text called the Sutra of the Ten Kings of Hell. The living descendants of a deceased ancestor pray to the Buddhas and the Kings of Hell for leniency and clemency, hoping to spare the deceased some of the tortures depicted in the paintings. Paintings of the Ten Kings are known from the Goryeo period on Korea and continued to be made through the Joseon dynasty.

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

CAPTION A King of Hell, early 19th century. Ink and color on silk, Framed: 70 × 60 × 2 in. (177.8 × 152.4 × 5.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Carroll Family Collection, 2020.18.9 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.2020.18.9_overall.jpg)

IMAGE overall, CUR.2020.18.9_overall.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2020

"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.

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