Medium: Wood, lacquer
Geograhical Locations:
Dates:mid 17th century
Dimensions: 16 15/16 × 11 × 8 1/4 in. (43 × 28 × 21 cm)
Collections:
Accession Number: 2021.17.6
Image: 2021.17.6_PS11.jpg,
Catalogue Description: Figure of a Bodhisattva, seated with legs crossed, one hand raised (now missing, likely making gesture of teaching) and one lowered, making a teaching gesture. The figure is depicted wearing a heavy mantle that drapes over his shoulders, and a high-waisted skirt with deep folds. On his bared chest he wears beaded pendants hanging from a torque. He has a topknot and a flattened shelf around his head where a separate crown, likely in metal, would have stood. His eyes are downcast and his head tilted down in a meditative stance. The object is covered in lacquer and shows signs of having been in a fire, with bubbling of the lacquer surface visible on the chest. Some elements of the mantle collar, made from lacquer-coated cloth, have broken away. Traces of gilding, visible particularly on the shoulders, indicate that the whole piece was once gilded. Likely originally one of two Bodhisattvas flanking a larger seated Buddha image. Donor's cataloguing notes: "The oblong face and drapery with cascading folds indicate that the statue was likely produced by an esteemed school of Buddhist monk sculptors led by Ingyun (active 1615–63) for a temple in the South Jeolla Province, an important Buddhist power base at the time."