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)

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

Add to Collection

Log in to the 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)