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A Gilt-bronze Standing Buddha Unified Silla period (668-935), 8th century image 1
A Gilt-bronze Standing Buddha Unified Silla period (668-935), 8th century image 2
Lot 373

A Gilt-bronze Standing Buddha
Unified Silla period (668-935), 8th century

Fine Japanese and Korean Art
20 March 2019, 13:00 EDT
New York

Sold for US$12,575 inc. premium

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A Gilt-bronze Standing Buddha

Unified Silla period (668-935), 8th century
Hollow-cast with the right hand raised in the simuoe-in (protection) gesture, the left hand lowered in the yeowon-in (compassion) gesture and a large yukgye covered in curls rising from his head, dressed in an undergarment gathered at his ankles and an outer garment that falls in symmetrical U-shaped folds across the front, stretches smoothly across the back, the right edge of the fabric falling over onto his left shoulder
With a wooden storage box bearing a label from the N.V. Hammer gallery
7 5/8in (19.4cm) high (figure only)

Footnotes

Provenance
Hwangboksa Temple, Guwang-dong, Geongju, by repute
N.V. Hammer, Inc. New York, February 13, 1965
Dr. Robert and Bernice Dickes, thereafter by descent

Examined at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Conservation Laboratory in 2011, with a conservation report dated November 29, 2011, prepared by Donna Strahan, Head of Conservation and Scientific Research, Freer and Sackler Galleries.

When this work was acquired in 1965, its provenance was given as Hwangboksa Temple in Guwang-dong, Geongju, which had became famous in 1942 after two gold statues of Buddha, now National Treasures 79 and 80, were discovered beneath a stone pagoda, preserved within a bronze reliquary dated 709. Although both have similar U-shaped folds in their outer garments, current scholarship would place the present lot at a somewhat later date owing to differences such in the curl-covered yukgye and the facial features (for illustrations of the gold figures and related pieces see Youngsook Pak and Roderick Whitfield, Handbook of Korean Art: Buddhist Sculpture, Seoul, 2002, pp.203-217, 287-289, and 296-297). X-ray fluorescence examination in 2011 showed the composition of the metal to be typical for Korean sculpture of the Silla dynasty, with traces of green copper-alloy corrosion from long burial remaining on the extensively cleaned surface. It was suggested that tangs may have protruded at the back of head to hold an aureole and from the base of each foot to support the figure.

The closed back and head are unusual features, contrasting with the open construction that appears more frequently during the Silla period, as seen in two examples in National Museum of Korea, Echoes of Life: the Enduring Tradition of Unified Silla Sculpture, Seoul, 2009. The first is a gilt-bronze standing Buddha (cat. no.13, p.38) with an opening at the back of the head, but a closed body. The second (cat. no.20, pp.46-47) is an Amita Bul (Amitabha Buddha) with a completely closed back, a prong meant for an aureole, and an outer garment that falls in gathered folds from the back left shoulder. Two other standing gilt-bronze Buddhas are illustrated in Kwak Dongseok and others, Sculptures of Unified Silla, Seoul, National Museum of Korea, 2014, pp.78-79 (3-3 and 3-2), both thought to have been cast during the early eighth century and sharing with the present lot the recessed U-form folds across the front. The catalogue text notes that figures from the peak period of production in the eight century are hollow-cast with recessed folds to the clothing and have small apertures toward the back, while those from the late ninth century show larger irregular holes in the back or may be left open and unfinished, the details of the face and drapery now chased onto the surface instead of being cast (pp.90-92). The present lot seems to fall within the earlier period of production.

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