# Chaekgeori & Minhwa Screen Painting

> Korean painted folding screens of the late Joseon period. Chaekgeori ('books and things') stack books, bronzes, ceramics and scholar's tools, often in a grid of bookcase compartments drawn with Western-derived shading and several viewpoints at once. Promoted at court by King Jeongjo, the genre passed to anonymous folk painters (minhwa), who also made munjado screens in which one Confucian-virtue character is built from emblematic pictures.

- Period: 1776–present
- Where: East Asia
- Origin: Joseon court in Hanyang (Seoul) under King Jeongjo (r. 1776–1800), spreading to aristocratic and then commoner households across Korea; minhwa revived since the 1980s
- Branch: Traditions & vernacular
- Also known as: Chaekgeori (books and things), Chaekgado (bookshelf screens), Munbangdo, Munjado (pictorial ideographs), Minhwa (Korean folk painting)
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/chaekgeori-minhwa/

## How it works

- Divide the screen into a grid of shelf compartments and give each cell its own still life of books and precious objects.
- Model books and vessels with shading and recession borrowed from Jesuit-transmitted Western perspective, but let each compartment keep its own viewpoint so objects tilt towards the viewer.
- Design for a folding screen of tall panels that reads both as one continuous field and as a sequence.
- Let objects carry meaning: books for learning, Chinese bronzes and ceramics for connoisseurship, clocks and spectacles for worldliness, pomegranates for fertility.
- In munjado, let one Confucian-virtue character fill each panel and build its strokes from the emblems of its moral stories, such as the carp and bamboo shoots of filial piety.
- Paint in bright mineral colour on paper or silk; in folk versions, flatten the space and let objects float freely.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Modular grid](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/modular-grid/) (defining)
- [Framed panels](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/framed-panels/) (defining)
- [Isolated object](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/isolated-object/) (characteristic)
- [Central symmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/central-symmetry/) (characteristic)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Illusion of depth](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/illusion-of-depth/) (defining)
- [Flat hierarchy](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-hierarchy/) (characteristic)
- [Repetition & rhythm](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/repetition-and-rhythm/) (characteristic)
- [Sequential narrative](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/sequential-narrative/) (characteristic)
- [Horror vacui](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/horror-vacui/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Brush & pen calligraphy](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/brush-and-pen-calligraphy/) (characteristic)
- [Type as image](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/type-as-image/) (characteristic)
- [Ornamented display](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ornamented-display/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Full polychrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-polychrome/) (characteristic)
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (characteristic)
- [Light ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/light-ground/) (characteristic)
- [Earth & mineral](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/earth-and-mineral/) (occasional)
- [Gradients](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/gradients/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Rectilinear](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rectilinear/) (defining)
- [Naturalistic depiction](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/naturalistic-depiction/) (characteristic)
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (occasional)
- [Paper & letterpress bite](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/paper-and-letterpress-bite/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Folk & sacred symbols](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/folk-and-sacred-symbols/) (characteristic)
- [Floral & vegetal](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/floral-and-vegetal/) (characteristic)
- [Abundant decoration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/abundant-decoration/) (occasional)
- [Borders & frames](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/borders-and-frames/) (occasional)

### Imagery
- [Painterly illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-illustration/) (defining)
- [Line illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/line-illustration/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Hand-painted](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-painted/) (defining)
- [Textile & craft](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/textile-and-craft/) (occasional)

### Tone & intent
- [Authoritative & institutional](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/authoritative-and-institutional/) (characteristic)
- [Luxurious & glamorous](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/luxurious-and-glamorous/) (characteristic)
- [Communal & popular](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/communal-and-popular/) (characteristic)
- [Spiritual & sacred](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/spiritual-and-sacred/) (occasional)
- [Playful & witty](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/playful-and-witty/) (occasional)

Avoids: Monochrome, Generous white space, Non-representational, Ornament-free, Straight photography

Palette: #efe3c8, #2e7d6b, #2b4c8c, #b8392b, #d9a23a, #2a2420

Typefaces: Haeseo (regular script) brush characters, Munjado pictorial ideographs built from emblematic motifs, Seal script on the painter's hidden seals

Known for: Yi Hyeong-rok (also signed Yi Eungrok and Yi Taekgyun, c. 1808–1883), court chaekgado screens with hidden seals (Cleveland Museum of Art; Asian Art Museum, San Francisco); King Jeongjo (r. 1776–1800), who promoted chaekgeori and reportedly had a book painting placed behind his throne in place of royal imagery; Anonymous minhwa painters' munjado screens of the eight Confucian virtues (filial piety, brotherly respect, loyalty, trust, propriety, righteousness, integrity, sense of shame); Chaekgeori: The Power and Pleasure of Possessions in Korean Painted Screens (Spencer Museum of Art and US tour, 2017; eds. Byungmo Chung and Sunglim Kim); Knowledge in Trompe-l'œil, Korea (18th–20th century), Musée Guimet, Paris (2026–27)

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Influenced by: [Nianhua & Chinese Folk Print](https://stylogeny.com/styles/nianhua.md) (c. 1100–present)
- Alike in its design choices: [Burmese Parabaik Painting (Konbaung Folding Books)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/burmese-parabaik.md) (1752–1885), 69% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Armenian Manuscript Illumination](https://stylogeny.com/styles/armenian-illumination.md) (c. 862–1800), 63% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Senegalese Sufi Devotional Imagery (Souwère Glass Painting and Amadou Bamba Portraits)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/senegalese-sufi-imagery.md) (1900–present), 61% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Persian Miniature (Ilkhanid, Timurid and Safavid Book Painting)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/persian-miniature.md) (c. 1300–1700), 56% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [West African Barbershop & Hair Salon Signs](https://stylogeny.com/styles/barbershop-sign.md) (1950–present), 55% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Pakistani Truck Art](https://stylogeny.com/styles/pakistani-truck-art.md) (1947–present), 49% alike

## Real works

- [Books and Scholars' Accoutrements (chaekgado)](https://clevelandart.org/art/2011.37): Yi Taek-gyun (1808–after 1883), late 1800s, The Cleveland Museum of Art
- [Books and Scholarly Accoutrements](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/853896): Unidentified artist, 19th century, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- [Books and Scholars' Possessions](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/73134): Unidentified artist, early 20th century, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- [Munja-Chaekgeori Screen (Character-Books Screen)](https://clevelandart.org/art/2017.6): Unidentified artist, early 1900s, The Cleveland Museum of Art

## Sources

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaekgeori
- Byungmo Chung & Sunglim Kim (eds.), Chaekgeori: The Power and Pleasure of Possessions in Korean Painted Screens (SUNY Press, 2017)
- https://amis-musee-cernuschi.org/en/du-raffinement-de-la-cour-a-limaginaire-populaire-le-paravent-coreen-aux-livres-chaekgeori/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minhwa

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Chaekgeori & Minhwa Screen Painting”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/chaekgeori-minhwa/