Crowned, Pensive Bodhisattva, Probably Mirŭk Posal (Bodhisattva Maitreya), Seated with the Left Leg Pendant, the Right Ankle Resting on the Left Knee, the Left foot Resting on a Lotus Blossom, the Right Hand Supporting the Chin

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: 1943.56.1
Title: Crowned, Pensive Bodhisattva, Probably Mirŭk Posal (Bodhisattva Maitreya), Seated with the Left Leg Pendant, the Right Ankle Resting on the Left Knee, the Left foot Resting on a Lotus Blossom, the Right Hand Supporting the Chin
Other Titles: Alternate Title: Mi-reuk Bo-sal
Classification: Sculpture
Work Type: sculpture, figurine
Date: probably Silla Kingdom, late 6th-early 7th century
Places: Creation Place: East Asia, Korea
Period: Three Kingdoms period, Silla, 57 BCE-668 CE
Culture: Korean
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/203786

Location

Location: Level 1, Room 1610, Buddhist Sculpture, Buddhism and Early East Asian Buddhist Art

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Physical Descriptions

Medium: Bronze with traces of gilding
Dimensions: H. 15.1 x W. 5.1 x D. 5.5 cm (5 15/16 x 2 x 2 3/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History: Grenville L. Winthrop (1864-1943), New York (by 1943), bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop

Accession Year

1943

Object Number

1943.56.1

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Exhibition History

S425: East Asian Buddhist Sculpture, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 10/20/1985 - 04/30/2008
Re-View: S228-230 Arts of Asia, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 05/31/2008 - 06/01/2013
32Q: 1610 Buddhist Art I, Harvard Art Museums, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

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

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1943.56.1: Crowned, Pensive Bodhisattva, Probably Mirŭk Posal (Bodhisattva Maitreya), Seated with the Left Leg Pendant, the Right Ankle Resting on the Left Knee, the Left foot Resting on a Lotus Blossom, the Right Hand Supporting the Chin