Asian Works of Art

The seated bodhisattva is shown in the varada mudra gesture. The figure’s intricately piled hair and crown are painted and inlaid with turquoise, while traces of gilding remain visible on the body.

The bodhisattva displays many of the distinguishing stylistic features characteristic of early to mid-Joseon period transitional sculpture: the head is large compared to the rest of its body; the upper torso is bent forward and inclined backward so that the center of gravity of the upper torso is distinctly behind the bottom base of the figure; and the face bears a benign smiling expression.

Note:
For a very similar gilt bronze Suryaprabha Bodhisattva (H: 10.5 cm), see the group of twenty-three gilt bronze images commissioned in 1628 by Queen Mother Inmok, wife of King Sŏnjo (r. 1567–1608), and which were excavated beneath the pagoda in the Sujong-sa Temple complex in Kyonggi Province, currently in the collection of the National Museum of Korea:
Three jewels: Buddhist art of Korea (vol. 10 in the series Han'guk tojagi ui arumdaun, Seoul, 1979), pl. 90;
Young-sook Pak and Roderick Whitfield, Handbook of Korean Art: Buddhist Sculpture (Seoul: Yekyong Publishing Co., 2002), no. 102.

For another closely related iron Bodhisattva (H: 19.7 cm) which appears to have been made utilizing the same model, see The Korean Aesthetic: The Collection of Robert W. Moore, Bonhams, New York, 15 March 2017, lot 7062.

參考：
一尊高10.5厘米的類似銅鎏金日光菩薩像，見朝鮮宣祖（1567–1608年在位）之妃仁穆王后於1628年發願鑄造的一組二十三件銅鎏金造像。該組造像出土於京畿道水鐘寺（Sujong-sa）石塔，現藏於韓國國立中央博物館，收集在
《韓國佛教藝術》（《Han'guk tojagi ui arumdaun》系列叢書第10卷，首爾，1979年），圖版90；
Young-sook Pak 與 Roderick Whitfield 著，《韓國藝術手冊：佛教造像》（首爾：Yekyong Publishing Co.，2002年），編號102。
另一尊高19.7釐米的鐵鑄菩薩像，見紐約邦瀚斯2017年3月15日Robert W. Moore韓國藝術專場，編號7062。