An extremely rare and important early gilt bronze figure of Bhaishajyaguru Korea, Unified Silla Dynasty, 8th Century

also known as the Buddha of Healing or the 'Medicine' Buddha (Kor. Yaksa Yorae), the casting finished to an outstanding degree in slender flattened volumes with only very slightly rounded chest and hips, the standing figure with left hand bent up at the elbow to support an almsbowl, now missing, and the right hand held gently down and away from the body, dressed in long robes falling diagonally across the chest in flattened short folds and down along the front of the body in stylised U-shaped folds alternating in narrow and broad widths, the casting of the back of the figure equally well delineated, wrapping around the right shoulder to emerge in tightly gathered folds along both upper arms, and the robe-end thrown over the left shoulder towards three casting holes in the back and one projecting flange echoed by two further flanges in the soles of the feet, the head of particularly large proportion, with arching brows tapering to the low nose between elongated eyes above a broad bud mouth, flanked by very large ears with tapered earlobes, the hair studded with 'curls' rising in even rows to the broad domed usnisha (stand)

The present gilt bronze is an outstanding example of the powerful conceptions of divine forms available to Silla dynasty bronze-casters in Korea before the introduction from China of the emphasis on convincing three-dimensional sculptural volumes. Notwithstanding the flattened volumes of the body, the image is deeply spiritual, particularly in the balance of the large facial features, and the striking rhythm of the drapery. The drapery and proportions of the usnisha are also found on an important figure of Bhaishajyaguru, in the National Museum of Korea, illustrated by Matsubara Saburo, Korean Gilt-bronze Buddhist Sculpture, Tokyo, 1985, pl.121a; and again in Huang Shouyong, Hanguo meishu quanji, vol.5: Foxiang, 1973, pl.41.

Compare a related Buddha figure with similar hair and drapery, in the Gyeongju National Museum, South Korea, exhibited at Transmitting the Forms of Divinity. Early Buddhist Art from Korea and Japan, The Japan Society, New York, 2003, and illustrated cat.no.31, where a dating to the first half of the 8th century is proposed. Compare also, ibid., no.42., where the influence of Chinese votive sculptures from the Tang dynasty slightly later in the 8th century is clearly evident.