Harvard Art Museums > 1943.53.72: Buddha Standing on an Octagonal, Double-Lotus Base with His Right Hand Raised in the Abhaya-mudra and His Left Hand Lowered in the Varada-mudra, Probably the Buddha Shakyamuni (Sŏk'kamoni Yŏrae) Sculpture Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Buddha Standing on an Octagonal, Double-Lotus Base with His Right Hand Raised in the Abhaya-mudra and His Left Hand Lowered in the Varada-mudra, Probably the Buddha Shakyamuni (Sŏk'kamoni Yŏrae) , 1943.53.72,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Nov 21, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/204136. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download The gilt bronze sculpture is of a man standing upright on a pedestal and facing the viewer. The pedestal has geometric decoration colored in yellow, green, and dark brown. The man is dressed in a robe that covers both of his shoulders, arms, and legs. His hair sits on top of his head in a bun. His dark is colored dark. Both of his arms are bent out in front of him with both palms facing the viewer. His left hand points down and his right palm points up. 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 1943.53.72 Title Buddha Standing on an Octagonal, Double-Lotus Base with His Right Hand Raised in the Abhaya-mudra and His Left Hand Lowered in the Varada-mudra, Probably the Buddha Shakyamuni (Sŏk'kamoni Yŏrae) Other Titles Alternate Title: Sakyamuni Classification Sculpture Work Type sculpture, figurine Date 8th-9th century Places Creation Place: East Asia, Korea Period Unified Silla dynasty, 668-935 Culture Korean Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/204136 Location Location Level 1, Room 1610, Buddhist Sculpture, Buddhism and Early East Asian Buddhist Art View this object's location on our interactive map Physical Descriptions Medium Gilt bronze Dimensions H. 16.3 x W. 8.5 x D. 8.0 cm (6 7/16 x 3 3/8 x 3 1/8 in.) Provenance Recorded Ownership History [Yamanaka & Co., New York, 7/1/1936] sold; to Grenville L. Winthrop, New York (1936-1943), 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 1943.53.72 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. The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. Publication History W. Chie Ishibashi, "East Asian Buddhist Bronzes: A Comparative Analytical Study and a Preliminary Report" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, August 1977), Unpublished, passim Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), no. 45, p. 44 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 Collection Highlights 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
