서울지역을 포함한 19세기 경기지역 활동의 불화승들 가운데 단 한 차례라도 불화 조성의 책임을 맡았던 책임을 맡았던 수화승(首畵僧)은 ‘민관’ 을 필두로 약 50여 명에 이르며, ‘응석’ 을 비롯하여 유파를형성하는 화승은 대개 10여 개 그룹으로 나눌 수 있다. 그 중 응석은 실적이 두드러져 그동안 그에 대한 본격적인 연구가 이루어져 온데 비하여, 응석 못지않게 큰 비중을 차지하고 있으면서도 지금껏 단독적으로연구가 진행되어 오지 못한 금곡당 영환과 한봉당 창엽은, 19세기 후반 이후 경기지역을 대표하는 화승이라고 하여도 충분하다. 특히 ‘영환’ 은 응석에 버금가는 결과물들을 남기고 있는 불화승으로서 당시 경기지역 화승들과의 교류 폭이 두터움은 물론, 활동 범위 또한 남양주, 안성, 파주, 강화를 비롯하여 지금의 서울지역까지를 아우르고 있어 폭 넓게 진행되고 있음을 볼 수 있다. ‘창엽’역시 영환과의 교류를 시작으로작가적 기반을 형성하며 서울과 안성지역에 많은 작품들을 남기고 있는 화승이다. 따라서 19세기 경기지역 불화의 흐름을 파악하는데 영환파와 창엽파로 구분하여 화풍을 살펴보는 것은 반드시 필요하다고 하겠으며, 그것을 바탕으로 두 화파가 차지하는 몇 가지 불교미술사적 의의를 살펴볼 수 있을 것이다.
첫째, 영환과 창엽이 주축이 되어 이루어진 두 화파는 각기 화파별에 따른 독립적인 화풍을 형성하면서, ‘응륜, 승의, 체훈, 상규’ 등과의 복합적인 교류를 통하여 서로의 유파별 화풍 형성에도 밑거름이 됨으로써 함께 경기지역 불교 화단을 이끌어 가고 있다는 점이다. 즉, 영환은 약 30여 년간 활동하는 동안 거의 빠짐없이 창엽을 보조화승으로 삼고 있으면서도, 본인은 24년간 제자나 다름없는 창엽의 그림에 한 차례도 동참하지 않아 화면 구성이나 인물의 형태, 색채 사용 등에 있어 철저하게 독립적인 화풍을 보여주고 있다.
둘째, 영환·창엽 화파는 여러 부류의 화승들과 교류를 갖고 있음으로써 당시 시류에 편승하여 19세기 후반 이후 전국에 걸쳐 과다하게 적용되고 있는 서양적인 음영법을 차용할 만도 하나, 그 대신 지극히제한적인 곳의 묘사 외에는 색채와 필선의 강약으로만 입체감을 나타내는 표현법을 유지함으로써 철저하게 전통성을 고수하고 있다는 점을 들 수 있다.
셋째, 전통적으로 전해오는 초본을 무조건 답습하기보다는 전통을 바탕으로 새로운 도상을 창출해냄으로써, 19세기 경기지역 불교 화단의 새로운 변화를 주도하고 있다는 점이다.
Passing through the ages of Kings Injong‐Sukjong (1623‐1720) and Kings Yeongjo‐Jeongjo (1725‐1800) and entering the 19th century, the Buddhist painting circle in the Chosun Dynasty inclines to popular themes such as Ksitigarbha paintings (地藏菩薩圖), Big Dipper paintings (七星圖), Guardian paintings (神衆圖), and Mountain god paintings (山神圖) rather than Buddhist paintings for worship depicting Buddha, and shows changed stylistic characteristics including stiff and exaggerated forms of figures, the use of strong primary colors, coloring methods such as deep coloring (眞彩) and mixed coloring (混彩法), and cubical expression techniques. Among them, a new technique clearly distinguished from previous expression methods continued since the Koryo Dynasty is the shading technique (陰影法) for making objects appear three‐dimensional, which is believed to have been influenced by the shading method of Western fine arts.
Among monk painters who acted in the Gyeonggi area including Seoul during the 19th century, there were around 50 leading monk painters (首畵僧) including Mingwan who were in charge of Buddhist painting projects at least once, and those who formed schools including Eungseok can be divided into some 10 groups. As Eungseok’s achievements were prominent, research on him has been made actively. On the contrary, Geumgokdang Yeonghwan and Hanbongdang Changyeop, who were as eminent as Eungseok, have never been studied separately so far, but they can be called monk painters representing the Gyeonggi area in the late 19th century.
In particular, Yeonghwan is a monk painter who created works comparable with Eungseok’s. He maintained broad association with other monk painters in the Gyeonggi area, and the scope of his activities extended wide to Namyangju, Anseong, Paju, Ganghwa and as far as Seoul.
Changyeop also paved his ground as a painter through association with Yeonghwan, and created many works in Seoul and Anseong. In order to understand the trend of Buddhist paintings in the Gyeonggi area during the 19th century, it is considered essential to examine the painting style of the Yeonghwan school and the Changyeop school. The results of such research will clarify the significances of the two schools in the history of Buddhist arts.
First, the two schools led by Yeonghwan and Changyeop, respectively, established their own styles and influenced each other through exchange with Eungryun, Seungeui, Chehun,Sanggyu, etc. With these activities, they led the Buddhist painting circle in the Gyeonggi area. That is, Yeonghwan worked together with Changyeop as his assistant monk painter almost always for around 30 years, but he never participated in Changyeop’s paintings for 24years. As a result, Changyeop’s works show entirely independent styles in terms of screen composition, the shape of figures, the use of colors, etc.
Second, the Yeonghwan‐Changyeop schools exchanged with monk painters from various classes, so they could have adopted the Western shading technique, which had been being applied excessively throughout the country since the late 19th century. Nevertheless, they persistently adhered to traditions by maintaining the expression method that produces a cubic effect only using the tone of color and line except for extremely limited descriptions.
Third, they led new changes in the Buddhist painting circle of the Gyeonggi area during the 19th century by creating new icons based on traditions rather than following traditional sketches blindly.
As presented above, the Yeonghwan‐Changyeop schools have significances in the history of Buddhist arts as they represent the Buddhist painting circle in the Gyeonggi during the 19th century by showing new screen composition while maintaining traditional techniques through exchange with many monk painters based on their association with Eungseok.