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Lot Essay
A Compelling Buddhist Sculpture
from Korea’s Unified Silla Dynasty
Presented in the guise of a monk, this sculpture represents a Buddha 佛, as indicated by the robes, ushnisha, benevolent countenance, distended earlobes and small snail-shell curls of hair. The ushnisha佛頂, the cranial protuberance atop the head, symbolizes the expanded wisdom that the Buddha gained at his enlightenment, and it serves as the Buddha’s diagnostic iconographic feature. The gilded surface not only makes the sculpture appropriate for representing a deity but symbolizes the light that, according to the sacred texts, or sutras 佛經, radiates from his body.
Individual Buddhas generally are identified by the ritual gesture, or mudra—手印 or 印相—in which they hold their hands. Though damaged, the hands of this Buddha appear to have been positioned in the abhayavaramudra, a preaching gesture, in which the right hand is raised, palm outward, in the gesture of “do not fear” 施無畏印, and the left hand is lowered, palm outward, in the gift-giving gesture 與願印. The sculpture thus likely represents either Shakyamuni 釈迦牟尼佛 (the Historical Buddha) or Amitabha 阿彌陀佛 (the Buddha of Boundless Light), both of whom frequently hold their hands in that preaching gesture; with the fingers missing, however, and in the absence of an inscription or other iconographic symbol, precise identification is elusive.
Created in the eighth century, this Unified Silla-period 統一新羅 (668–935) sculpture has a full, round face, a large domed ushnisha, small snail-shell curls of hair, and clinging robes that reveal the body’s form. Despite its similarities to Chinese sculptures from the Tang dynasty 唐朝 (618–907), this Buddha definitely is Korean, as revealed most compellingly by the opening in the back—a vertically oriented, almond-shaped opening in the middle of the back—which presumably was left there for technical reasons of casting. The backs of early Chinese gilt-bronze sculptures typically are closed. Whether or not such openings were covered, perhaps with a metal plate, remains unknown; however, if dedicatory religious objects were placed inside the sculpture’s hollow interior, then the backs surely were closed to protect them. Whether open or closed, the back of the sculpture was not meant to be seen and originally was concealed from view by a mandorla, or full-body halo.
Other, more subtle, characteristics also identify this sculpture as Korean: the head is large in proportion to the body and the shoulders are narrow in proportion to the head. The face, too, is distinctively Korean in style, with small mouth, high cheekbones, and long narrow eyes set under bulging eyelids and beneath arching eyebrows. Characteristic of Korean sculptures, the arms are elegantly poised, and the Gandharan-type robes flow gracefully over the body, forming a harmonious, rhythmic pattern that enlivens the surface.
The cusped base on which the Buddha stands is quintessentially Korean, its foliations suggesting a stylized lotus blossom and its eight points emblemizing the Buddha’s Eight Fold Path. The lower parts of such Unified Silla bases typically resemble small, low tables, the elongated quatrefoil openings separating one short leg from the next. An inverted lotus blossom rests atop the table and supports a short, waisted ring from which rises the upright lotus blossom on which the Buddha stands. In the style of eighth-century Korea, a small, stylized lotus leaf springs vertically from the tip of each of the inverted lotus blossom’s petals.
A mandorla, the flamelike aureole suggesting divine light emanating from the image, originally accompanied this sculpture. Anchored by a tenon fitted into a horizontal slot in the top of the base behind the Buddha and secured in place by another tenon, now lost, that projected laterally from the back of the head, the mandorla would have concealed the back of the sculpture from view. The mandorla likely incorporated an openwork floral arabesque with a lotus blossom featured en face directly behind the Buddha’s head. The gilt-bronze mandorlas associated with two Unified Silla-period sculptures in the National Museum of Korea, Seoul, suggest the appearance of this Buddha’s original mandorla (see National Museum of Korea, Sculptures of Unified Silla [Seoul: National Museum of Korea, 2014], p. 49, no. 2-7, p. 133, no. 4-21).
Though they have lost their original bases and mandorlas, two gilt-bronze sculptures closely related to the present one are also in the collection of the National Museum of Korea, Seoul (see National Museum of Korea, Sculptures of Unified Silla [Seoul: National Museum of Korea, 2014], p. 78, nos. 3-2 [Deoksu-005514-00000] and 3-3 [Dongwon-001933-00000]).
Robert D. Mowry 毛瑞
Alan J. Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art Emeritus,
Harvard Art Museums, and
Senior Consultant, Christie’s
1 An excellent source for information on Buddhist iconography is Sawa Ryūken (also known as Sawa Takaaki), ed., Butsuzo zuten (Illustrated Dictionary of Buddhist Images), revised, enlarged edition (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1962), in Japanese, 佐和隆研編, 仏像図典, 增補版, 東京: 吉川弘文館, 1962.
2 For information on the history of Korean Buddhist sculpture from the Unified Silla period, see Lena Kim, Buddhist Sculpture of Korea, Korean Culture Series no. 8 (Seoul and Elizabeth, NJ: Hollym, 2007); Washizuka Hiromitsu, Park Youngbok and Kang Woo-bang, Transmitting the Forms of Divinity: Early Buddhist Art from Korea and Japan (New York: Japan Society, 2003); and National Museum of Korea, Sculptures of Unified Silla (Seoul: National Museum of Korea, 2014).
3 For the classic English-language study on the inclusion of dedicatory objects within the cavities of hollow religious sculptures, see: John M. Rosenfield, “The Sedgwick Statue of the Infant Shotoku Taishi,” Archives of Asian Art 22 (1968-69): 56-79.
4 For information about the bases of Unified Silla, gilt-bronze Buddhist sculptures, see Chewon Kim, “On Buddhist Statues Found at the Ruins of Sooksoosa Temple, Korea,” Bijutsu Kenkyū 200 (September 1958):, 107-8, with English summary, pp. 2-3; and Saburō Matsubara, “Chronological Study of Gilt Bronze Images of the Silla Periods,” Bijutsu Kenkyū, 275 ( May 1971): 15-30, with English summary, and pl. IX-a, b, c.
from Korea’s Unified Silla Dynasty
Presented in the guise of a monk, this sculpture represents a Buddha 佛, as indicated by the robes, ushnisha, benevolent countenance, distended earlobes and small snail-shell curls of hair. The ushnisha佛頂, the cranial protuberance atop the head, symbolizes the expanded wisdom that the Buddha gained at his enlightenment, and it serves as the Buddha’s diagnostic iconographic feature. The gilded surface not only makes the sculpture appropriate for representing a deity but symbolizes the light that, according to the sacred texts, or sutras 佛經, radiates from his body.
Individual Buddhas generally are identified by the ritual gesture, or mudra—手印 or 印相—in which they hold their hands. Though damaged, the hands of this Buddha appear to have been positioned in the abhayavaramudra, a preaching gesture, in which the right hand is raised, palm outward, in the gesture of “do not fear” 施無畏印, and the left hand is lowered, palm outward, in the gift-giving gesture 與願印. The sculpture thus likely represents either Shakyamuni 釈迦牟尼佛 (the Historical Buddha) or Amitabha 阿彌陀佛 (the Buddha of Boundless Light), both of whom frequently hold their hands in that preaching gesture; with the fingers missing, however, and in the absence of an inscription or other iconographic symbol, precise identification is elusive.
Created in the eighth century, this Unified Silla-period 統一新羅 (668–935) sculpture has a full, round face, a large domed ushnisha, small snail-shell curls of hair, and clinging robes that reveal the body’s form. Despite its similarities to Chinese sculptures from the Tang dynasty 唐朝 (618–907), this Buddha definitely is Korean, as revealed most compellingly by the opening in the back—a vertically oriented, almond-shaped opening in the middle of the back—which presumably was left there for technical reasons of casting. The backs of early Chinese gilt-bronze sculptures typically are closed. Whether or not such openings were covered, perhaps with a metal plate, remains unknown; however, if dedicatory religious objects were placed inside the sculpture’s hollow interior, then the backs surely were closed to protect them. Whether open or closed, the back of the sculpture was not meant to be seen and originally was concealed from view by a mandorla, or full-body halo.
Other, more subtle, characteristics also identify this sculpture as Korean: the head is large in proportion to the body and the shoulders are narrow in proportion to the head. The face, too, is distinctively Korean in style, with small mouth, high cheekbones, and long narrow eyes set under bulging eyelids and beneath arching eyebrows. Characteristic of Korean sculptures, the arms are elegantly poised, and the Gandharan-type robes flow gracefully over the body, forming a harmonious, rhythmic pattern that enlivens the surface.
The cusped base on which the Buddha stands is quintessentially Korean, its foliations suggesting a stylized lotus blossom and its eight points emblemizing the Buddha’s Eight Fold Path. The lower parts of such Unified Silla bases typically resemble small, low tables, the elongated quatrefoil openings separating one short leg from the next. An inverted lotus blossom rests atop the table and supports a short, waisted ring from which rises the upright lotus blossom on which the Buddha stands. In the style of eighth-century Korea, a small, stylized lotus leaf springs vertically from the tip of each of the inverted lotus blossom’s petals.
A mandorla, the flamelike aureole suggesting divine light emanating from the image, originally accompanied this sculpture. Anchored by a tenon fitted into a horizontal slot in the top of the base behind the Buddha and secured in place by another tenon, now lost, that projected laterally from the back of the head, the mandorla would have concealed the back of the sculpture from view. The mandorla likely incorporated an openwork floral arabesque with a lotus blossom featured en face directly behind the Buddha’s head. The gilt-bronze mandorlas associated with two Unified Silla-period sculptures in the National Museum of Korea, Seoul, suggest the appearance of this Buddha’s original mandorla (see National Museum of Korea, Sculptures of Unified Silla [Seoul: National Museum of Korea, 2014], p. 49, no. 2-7, p. 133, no. 4-21).
Though they have lost their original bases and mandorlas, two gilt-bronze sculptures closely related to the present one are also in the collection of the National Museum of Korea, Seoul (see National Museum of Korea, Sculptures of Unified Silla [Seoul: National Museum of Korea, 2014], p. 78, nos. 3-2 [Deoksu-005514-00000] and 3-3 [Dongwon-001933-00000]).
Robert D. Mowry 毛瑞
Alan J. Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art Emeritus,
Harvard Art Museums, and
Senior Consultant, Christie’s
1 An excellent source for information on Buddhist iconography is Sawa Ryūken (also known as Sawa Takaaki), ed., Butsuzo zuten (Illustrated Dictionary of Buddhist Images), revised, enlarged edition (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1962), in Japanese, 佐和隆研編, 仏像図典, 增補版, 東京: 吉川弘文館, 1962.
2 For information on the history of Korean Buddhist sculpture from the Unified Silla period, see Lena Kim, Buddhist Sculpture of Korea, Korean Culture Series no. 8 (Seoul and Elizabeth, NJ: Hollym, 2007); Washizuka Hiromitsu, Park Youngbok and Kang Woo-bang, Transmitting the Forms of Divinity: Early Buddhist Art from Korea and Japan (New York: Japan Society, 2003); and National Museum of Korea, Sculptures of Unified Silla (Seoul: National Museum of Korea, 2014).
3 For the classic English-language study on the inclusion of dedicatory objects within the cavities of hollow religious sculptures, see: John M. Rosenfield, “The Sedgwick Statue of the Infant Shotoku Taishi,” Archives of Asian Art 22 (1968-69): 56-79.
4 For information about the bases of Unified Silla, gilt-bronze Buddhist sculptures, see Chewon Kim, “On Buddhist Statues Found at the Ruins of Sooksoosa Temple, Korea,” Bijutsu Kenkyū 200 (September 1958):, 107-8, with English summary, pp. 2-3; and Saburō Matsubara, “Chronological Study of Gilt Bronze Images of the Silla Periods,” Bijutsu Kenkyū, 275 ( May 1971): 15-30, with English summary, and pl. IX-a, b, c.