Bronze Buddha with Gold Lacquer

UNITED SILLA DYNASTY (9TH CENTURY)

Details

Bronze Buddha with Gold Lacquer
United Silla dynasty (9th century)
Hollow cast in the standing figure of Buddha with the right hand held in the abhayamudra and the left in varadamudra, or the gesture of fulfilling the vow, the drapery falling from the shoulders in u-shaped pleats to mid-calf and in vertical pleats to either side of the ankles; the reverse cast in low relief with a further slender section of drapery extending from the left shoulder and with two large circular apertures from which the clay core was extracted from the casting, a smaller aperture at the back of the head covered with a foundry patch; the right foot cast with a peg for insertion to an original separately cast base, peg on the left foot now broken off; the surface now mostly covered with a later layer of clear lacquer suspending powdered gold over residue of an older middle lacquer layer of suspended gold flakes, in turn over very small remnants of gold foil originally adhered to the bronze; a small hole at hem between legs of figure and smaller hole to right of right foot
7 7/8in. (20cm.) high

Lot Essay

For a figure of the same size, see Arts of Korea (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998), pl. 67.

A slightly smaller bronze Buddha sold Christie's, Paris, 21 December 2009, lot 126.

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