In May 1968, 83 seals were excavated from the tomb of Hong Seok-gu, one of the literati in the mid-Joseon dynasty. Hong was a literator who designed and engraved the seal by himself in the 17th century. The lifetime of Hong Seok-gu was reorganized through the Buried Epitaph(墓誌銘) by Lee Dan-ha(李端夏) and the Tombstone Inscription(墓碣銘) by Jeong Ho(鄭澔). which revealed that he was often dismissed from the public office and assigned to the local government. Therefore, he repeatedly resigned and retired from his office. It is assumed that his personal misfortune allowed him to devote his time and space in engraving the seals. The style of his seals was influenced from the famous Andong Kim clan(安東 金門). He carved high-quality seals using various ancient seal script(古篆體) introduced in the calligraphy circles(書壇) with 38 seal script(篆書) including small seal script(小篆) and jade chopsticks seal script(玉筯篆). In addition, he applied composition techniques(章法) which were creatively transformed from the method of putting both depressed and embossed engraving into one seal(朱白相間法), a popular way in the 17th century. He also held his experimental point of view in the composition techniques of the seals shaped of an ancient coin(孔方錢). Regarding the poetry seal(詞句印), his brilliant sense of modeling is noticeable in combining literature with figuration. Shapes such as a small table for a incense burner(香佐兒), a liquor bottle(酒甁), and an arrow throwing pot(投壺) implied literature, while seals carved with <Jeilgangsan(第一江山)>, <Gyosang-noin(橋上老人)> and <Daimyoung-cheonha-ilseosaeng(大明天下一書生)> were employed to attempt shaping with literature. The characteristic of this style is recognized as an artistic accomplishment of the seals in the Joseon dynasty, which was different from the seals of Ming dynasty following the style of the Han dynasty.
Modeling of Hong Seok-gu’s Seals