A gilt bronze square box with two doors that open to an image of a seated man surrounded by other people.
Shrine doors open, without Bodhisattvas Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Shrine doors open, without Bodhisattvas Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

The gilt bronze box is square in shape and is shown to face forward. There are two doors on the left and right side of the box and are wide open. There is a small handle standing up on the top of the box. Each door has an image of a standing person in swirling robes. These two people are bent backwards and looking outward from the center and down. Inside of the box is a small, round object. Above the object is an image of a man sitting cross-legged on a pedestal in robes. He has his right hand raised. He is encircled by eight smaller people in robes. There are circles around every person’s head and round clouds framing them at the top and bottom.

Gallery Text

Buddhist proselytizers from northern China and Central Asia first entered the Korean peninsula in the final decades of the fourth century. In the centuries that followed, Korean Buddhists developed their own traditions of ritual practice and systems of philosophical thought, but they were also in constant dialogue with their monastic counterparts in China, exchanging both texts and images. Icons were frequently presented as gifts among the rulers, merchants, and monks of China, Korea, and Japan, which led to a high degree of stylistic cross-pollination across the three cultures. Private, portable icons like these gilt bronze images—which, though crafted in Korea, share many visual traits with similar objects from China and Japan—provided an ideal medium for intercultural artistic and religious exchange. Such images are likely to have been worshipped on small altars in domestic settings. The portable shrine displayed here, from the Chosŏn dynasty (1392–1910), helps us to imagine the original display contexts for the images that surround it. A mobile, self-contained setting for icon worship, it differs little in form, material, or concept from the portable shrines that devotees first brought from India to Central Asia and China centuries before.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.53.71
Title
Portable Buddhist Shrine with Two Removable Standing Bodhisattvas, a Lotus Base for a Seated Buddha Image (now missing), a Repoussé Panel Depicting the Buddha Amitabha (Amit'abul), and Repoussé Panels on the Doors Representing Guardian Figures
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
14th century
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, Korea
Period
Koryŏ dynasty, 918-1392
Culture
Korean
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/303531

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2740, Buddhist Art, The Efflorescence of East Asian and Buddhist Art
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Physical Descriptions

Medium
Gilt bronze with incised and repoussé decoration
Dimensions
H. 30.0 x W. 34.5 x D. 11.2 cm (11 13/16 x 13 9/16 x 4 7/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[Yamanaka & Co., New York, 12/7/1934] sold; to Grenville L. Winthrop, New York (1934-1943), bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.53.71
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • W. Chie Ishibashi, "East Asian Buddhist Bronzes: A Comparative Analytical Study and a Preliminary Report" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, August 1977), Unpublished, passim
  • Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), no. 46, p. 45
  • James Cuno, Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Ivan Gaskell, and William W. Robinson, Harvard's Art Museums: 100 Years of Collecting, ed. James Cuno, Harvard University Art Museums and Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (Cambridge, MA, 1996), pp. 68-69
  • Masterpieces of world art : Fogg Art Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Busch-Reisinger Museum, 1997

Exhibition History

  • S425: East Asian Buddhist Sculpture, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 10/20/1985 - 04/30/2008
  • Re-View: S228-230 Arts of Asia, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 05/31/2008 - 06/01/2013
  • 32Q: 2740 Buddhist II, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 12/02/2024 - 01/01/2050
  • 32Q: 1610 Buddhist Art I, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 06/18/2024

Subjects and Contexts

  • Collection Highlights

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Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu