이화여자대학교박물관

Food is mandatory for survival and critical to good health, and the setting of the food table is an everyday act. But beyond the issue of mere survival, tables set with care and attention to decorum and finesse offers us psychological gratification and emotional security. They are also a social medium for strengthening relations among diners. It has long been a tradition in Korea to prepare banquets to celebrate happy occasions and drinks and snacks to commiserate together over sad occasions. This concept of the table as a medium extends not only to relationships among people but also to the relationship between humans and the divine; each religion in Korea has developed its own aesthetics of table setting according to its unique doctrine. All around the world, food reflects the features of the surrounding environment and the local social structure. Table settings, then, can be seen as a repository of each culture’s approach to decorum and finesse. This exhibition features the changing aesthetics of Korean table settings across time and social status, from the settings for the royal and imperial families and the presidents of the Republic of Korea to those for ordinary people, dating from the Goryeo kingdom to the present. It also examines the different decorum and finesse of religious table settings by comparing Buddhist altar settings with Confucian ones. Through food served in a variety of tableware and the various images of and processes by which food was placed on the table, visitors can experience firsthand the aesthetics of Korean table settings.