Iron Seated Buddha
Tenth to eleventh century
A large Buddha sits cross legged with his right hand reaching down to touch the earth, the gesture with which the Buddha called the ground to witness his enlightenment. The figure is dark and rough surfaced, because it is cast in iron rather than bronze or gilded wood. The face is broad and calm, the hair a mass of tight curls, and the thin robe clings to the body so that the chest and shoulders show clearly. Traces of the plaster and gilding that once covered the iron survive in places.
Iron statues like this were made from the ninth century onward, when supplies of copper for bronze were short and regional lords and temples wanted large images at lower cost. Iron is hard to cast in a single pour, so the body was made in sections in clay moulds, and if you look closely you can see the faint seams where the pieces meet. The hands, cast separately, are often lost, and missing fingers were once replaced in wood. The severe, powerful modelling of the face marks the transition from the refined Unified Silla style to the more direct manner of early Goryeo.
Iron Buddhas were placed on stone pedestals in the main halls of temples across the peninsula, and several of the museum's examples come from temple sites in the central provinces, such as the great Buddha from the Bowonsa site in Seosan. In the sculpture gallery they sit together in a spacious, dimly lit room where the scale of each figure can be felt. The museum deliberately shows the bare iron so that the visitor can appreciate the casting itself, which Korean foundries mastered earlier and on a larger scale than almost anywhere else in East Asia.
Did You Know? Because iron could not be cast in a single pour, these Buddhas were made in several pieces and the faint joins are still visible on the surface.
Unlock the Full Guide
Read every room and listen to every work in all museums with premium.