A rare bronze figure of a Bodhisattva Korea, Unified Silla Dynasty, 8th Century

finely cast in rounded volumes, standing in tribhanga with the right hip thrust to one side and the left leg bent elegantly beneath, the long dhoti falling in long folds to the exposed feet and wrapped at the hips with an apron and jeweled belt, leaving the torso bare but for foliate armlets and a long scarf draped across the shoulders and threaded elegantly through the upraised right hand, the large head with elongated large eyes and small bud mouth, with an urna below the locks of hair drawn up in a high topknot, the back with three small casting holes and two projecting tangs (stand)

The sense of convincing body weight and movement on the present bronze is very rare among gilt-bronzes from the Unified Silla Dynasty, and shows the influence of contemporary Tang Dynasty Chinese sculpture. Compare a bodhisattva figure with similar posture and drapery, but much more rigid and flattened, donated by the Ogura Foundation to the Tokyo National Museum, and illustrated in the accompanying Catalogue of the Ogura Collection, Tokyo, 1982, no.579, and again in Matsubara Saburo, Korean Gilt-bronze Buddhist Sculpture, Tokyo, 1985, pl.67 a & b.