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Standing Bodhisattva
Standing Bodhisattva
Standing Bodhisattva

Standing Bodhisattva

Maker (Korean, active 1626 - 1645)
Datecirca 1633
MediumCarved lacquered wood construction with traces of original gilding, with partial set of original woodblock-printed consecration sutras remaining in the hollow of the head
DimensionsOverall: 29 1/2 × 9 × 11 in. (74.9 × 22.9 × 27.9 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, The Paul and Miriam Kirkley Fund for Acquisitions
Object number2010.116a-e
Status
Not on view
Description
 About the Artist

                         

Korean Buddhist sculpture of the early Joseon period (1392 to around 1600) continues to reflect the refined aesthetics and technical proficiency of the temple statuary made during the preceding Goryeo Dynasty (908–1392), when the religion had been a dominant cultural force both at court and among the landed aristocracy.  Although neo-Confucianism—based on classical Chinese moral and social codes—was the officially sanctioned state ideology of Joseon Dynasty Korea, the Buddhist arts overall continued to flourish, though on a reduced scale, through royal and court patronage.  This practice largely ended in 1592 with the Japanese invasion of the Korean peninsula. The ensuing six years of warfare caused the looting and burning of most of the country’s Buddhist monasteries and temples, making extant examples of Joseon Buddhist sculptures (and paintings) from before this time exceptionally rare.
 About the Artwork

 

Pairs of statues of bodhisattvas—compassionate Buddhist deities—frequently flank a seated Buddha figure on a temple altar.  This rare Joseon dynasty example displays a symbolic hand gesture (in Sanskrit, mudra), in which the middle finger and thumb touch, to signify the god’s benevolent welcome for the souls of believers into the ninth rank of rebirth in the Western Paradise of the Buddha Amita in Pure Land Buddhist belief. 

 

Wood was the most common medium for fashioning Joseon Buddhist sculptures.  The finely rendered hands and feet, details of face and coiffure, and drapery of this carving testify to a remarkable craft tradition carried out by specially trained monk-sculptors.  Most Joseon temple sculptures, whether in bronze, clay, or wood, were originally gilded and thus helped the devout visualize the unearthly transcendent splendor of the Buddhist cosmos. In this carving, there remain traces of gilding that overlay the original dark reddish-brown lacquered wooden surface beneath. 

 

It was common practice at the consecration of the statue on a temple altar to place small sacred relics in gold and other precious materials together with printed Buddhist holy texts (called sutras) into the hollow interiors of Joseon Buddhist statues.  Some of the original paper votive offerings remain within the head of this work.

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