Ridge Tile in the Form of a Demonic Face (鬼面瓦/兽面瓦, Gwimyeon)
About the Artist
Itinerant Indian and Chinese monks transmitted the Buddhist faith to the northern and southern kingdoms of the Korean peninsula during the fourth to sixth centuries. Under the unified Silla Dynasty (668–935), Korea was for the first time unified under a single ruler, and the royal court officially adopted Buddhism as the state religion. This was a golden age for Korean Buddhism, and temples and monasteries received lavish patronage from courtiers and landed aristocracy. Secular splendor included elegant Chinese-style palace complexes in the kingdom’s capital city at Gyeongju in the southeast part of the country. Early Korean Buddhist sculptural and decorative imagery inspired by Buddhist ideology, seen in refined decorative ceramics and freestanding and relief sculptures in stone and bronze, clearly drew inspiration from contemporary Chinese Tang Dynasty art (618–907) during a period when the Korean court was greatly influenced by contemporary culture from China.
About the Artwork
Although broken vertically down its center, this thick tile has the crispness of the molded high-relief design and the fearsome clarity of its main imagery, making it an exceptional fragmentary clay sculpture. Traces of the natural wood ash glaze that blew accidentally across the piece while it was fired in a kiln give a glossy sheen to the otherwise unglazed dark gray surface. This tile once adorned the ridge of a palace or Buddhist temple roof, where it was affixed through the prominent hole that punctures its center.
The object’s main motif—an otherworldly ogre face that stares straight ahead—has ferocious, demonic imagery, suggesting a protective function. Conceivably, these belligerent creatures, which adorn a largely wooden structure, represent the mythic dragon (a symbol of water), and were installed to protect against fire. The tile’s surrounding border features circular knobs, which may be symbolic representations of the pearls of purity in Buddhist lore. Elegant floral arabesques further ornament the deep sides, possibly serving as shorthand references to the resplendent Western Paradise of the Amita Buddha described in the holy texts of the Pure Land sect of Buddhism.
