Sculptures

The Age of Grandeur: Buddhist Sculpture in Unified Silla 

In the eighth century, Buddhist sculpture was highly developed in Silla, which had unified most of the Korean Peninsula about a century earlier. Centralized royal power supported the production of Buddhist sculpture, allowing craftsmen to refine their skills and develop a sophisticated sense of human proportions.

Based on this craftsmanship, eighth-century Buddhist sculptures displayed remarkably well-proportioned bodies. Seokguram, built in the mid-eighth century in Gyeongju, is an outstanding example of the advanced craftsmanship of the period. The National Museum of Korea also houses remarkable iron Buddha statues dating from the late Unified Silla period.

Small heads, broad shoulders, and inverted-triangular upper bodies resemble what many people today would consider an attractive male physique. Producing such large iron statues required sophisticated casting techniques. Even small casting defects, such as gas bubbles or cracks on the surface, could damage the appearance of the sculpture.

Meanwhile, in the late eighth century, Charlemagne was expanding his power across Western Europe, the Vikings attacked the monastery of Lindisfarne in Britain, and the Abbasid Caliphate established Baghdad as its capital. Far away from these events, Buddhist sculpture was flourishing in Silla. Yet the atmosphere of the age seems interestingly similar.

The grandeur and confidence associated with powerful states can also be felt in the imposing, well-proportioned bodies of Silla Buddhas. The late eighth century was, in many regions, an age of expanding power and cultural confidence. A similar sense of confidence seems to permeate Silla Buddhist sculpture.