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A gilt bronze sculpture of a man seated with two smaller people standing by his side on a decorated pedestal.

The gilt bronze sculpture is of a man sitting cross-legged on a decorated bronze pedestal. He is wearing a robe which covers his left shoulder, arm, and bottom half. His hair is on top of his head in tiny curls. His left arm is down at his side with his left hand in his lap, palm facing up. His right arm is down at his side with his right hand on his right knee. There are two smaller people standing upright on smaller pedestals by his sides. They are wearing draped cloth around their waists, detailed jewelry around their necks, and crowns on their heads. Their external arms are bent in front of them with the palms facing up. Their internal arms are down by their sides.

Gallery Text

Buddhist proselytizers from northern China and Central Asia first entered the Korean peninsula in the final decades of the fourth century. In the centuries that followed, Korean Buddhists developed their own traditions of ritual practice and systems of philosophical thought, but they were also in constant dialogue with their monastic counterparts in China, exchanging both texts and images. Icons were frequently presented as gifts among the rulers, merchants, and monks of China, Korea, and Japan, which led to a high degree of stylistic cross-pollination across the three cultures. Private, portable icons like these gilt bronze images—which, though crafted in Korea, share many visual traits with similar objects from China and Japan—provided an ideal medium for intercultural artistic and religious exchange. Such images are likely to have been worshipped on small altars in domestic settings. The portable shrine displayed here, from the Chosŏn dynasty (1392–1910), helps us to imagine the original display contexts for the images that surround it. A mobile, self-contained setting for icon worship, it differs little in form, material, or concept from the portable shrines that devotees first brought from India to Central Asia and China centuries before.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1997.254
Title
Buddhist Triad: Amitabha Buddha Seated on a Lotus Throne with His Hands Held in the 'Bhŭmisparsa-mudrâ' and Flanked by Two Standing Bodhisattvas, Presumably Avalokitesvara and Mahasthamaprapta
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Amitabha, Manjusri, Samantabhadra
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, figurine
Date
mid-15th century
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, Korea
Period
Chosŏn dynasty, 1392-1910
Culture
Korean
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/198021

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Gilt silver
Dimensions
H. 10.8 x W. 10.2 x D. 6.8 cm (4 1/4 x 4 x 2 11/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Ralph C. Marcove, M.D., New York (by December 22, 1997), gift; to Harvard University Art Museums, 1997.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Ralph C. Marcove, M.D.
Accession Year
1997
Object Number
1997.254
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Publication History

  • Hongnam Kim, The Story of a Painting: A Korean Buddhist Treasure from the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, exh. cat., Asia Society Museum (New York, NY, 1991), no. 30, fig. 3, pp. 2, 3, 48
  • James Cuno, ed., A Decade of Collecting: Recent Acquisitions by the Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, Mass., Spring 2000), p. 9
  • Stephan Wolohojian and Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Harvard Art Museum/ Handbook, ed. Stephan Wolohojian, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, 2008), p. 58
  • Francesca Herndon-Consagra, Reflections of the Buddha, exh. cat., Pulitzer Arts Foundation (St. Louis, MO, 2011-2012), p. 35 (color plate); p. 45, no. 23

Exhibition History

  • S425a: Chinese Gilt Bronze Sculpture, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 10/20/1985 - 04/30/2008
  • A Decade of Collecting: Asian Acquisitions 1990-1999, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 03/11/2000 - 11/05/2000
  • Re-View: S228-230 Arts of Asia, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 05/31/2008 - 06/01/2013
  • Reflections of the Buddha, Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis, 09/09/2011 - 03/10/2012
  • Cultivating Virtue: Botanical Motifs and Symbols in East Asian Art, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 05/12/2012 - 06/01/2013
  • 32Q: 1610 Buddhist Art I, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 06/18/2024

Subjects and Contexts

  • Collection Highlights
  • Google Art Project

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu