Standing Bodhisattva

KOREA; Baekje period

Buddhist statues from late 6th to early 7th century Korea were often small “three honored ones under one mandorla” images. The figures were in many cases cast individually and subsequently united. The back of this statue is flat and has a tenon on the left, making it the Bodhisattva mounted on the right of a central Buddha. The figure wears a three mountains crown, the magnificence of which draws attention away from the simple circular nimbus with which it merges. A bead ornament falls from the neck to a decorative disc and divides again. The over robe beneath which beaded ornament disappears, flares out at the sides. The figure stands on an inverted lotus pedestal with the right hand raised in a mudra.