Legacy of Silla’s golden kingdom shines in New York

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has opened its halls to the 1,000-year-old legacy of the Silla Kingdom (B.C. 57-A.D. 935) with an exhibition that highlights the glory of the kingdom that unified the Korean Peninsula.

Featuring a total of 132 artifacts, including a number of state-designated national treasures, “Silla: Korea’s Golden Kingdom,” opened Tuesday to the members of the Met and will open to the general public on Nov. 4. The exhibition is slated to run through Feb. 23, 2014.

The Silla Kingdom had held cultural exchanges with foreign countries as far as the Arab civilization, and its flourishing Buddhist culture marked an epochal moment.

“It is a rare opportunity to experience the visual splendor of the Silla Kingdom in the first exhibition in the West devoted to the subject. These stunning works of art are rich in beauty and history, extending back to the first millennium and to a kingdom largely unknown to our audiences. Their story will be a revelation to the public,“ said Thomas P. Campbell, director and CEO of the museum.

The show, which took five years to plan, consists of three themes: “Treasure from Silla Tombs”; “Imported Luxuries and Exotic Imagery”; “and Buddhism: A New Tradition.”

Tombs

Aboveground stone chambers, covered with impenetrable mounds of stone and earth, were homes for the Silla royalty and elites in their afterlife.

Hwangnam Daechong (Great Tomb of Hwangnam), the largest Silla tomb in the ancient capital city of Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, and treasures excavated from the tomb illustrate the kingdom’s complicated ties to the nomadic-pastoralist traditions of Eurasia. Exhibited items include relics for a king and his queen’s immortal life; stunning gold regalia such as a crown-and-belt set, gold and glass-bead jewelry, vessels of clay and precious metals; weapons, and horse trappings and fittings for riding.

Videos featuring 3-D reconstructions of Hwangnam Tomb the Seokguram Grotto, a UNESCO World Heritage Monument, are provided to enhance visitors’ understanding.

Imported luxuries

Found in the excavated Silla burial sites were luxury goods made in foreign lands, including more than 30 Roman-style glass vessels that attest to the importance of Mediterranean glass in international trade at the time; a sheath and dagger; a tiny silver bowl; and ceramics from China. Other figures that represent foreigners, primarily individuals from Central or West Asia, are also on view.

Buddhism

It wasn’t until A.D. 527 that the Indian-originated religion was introduced to Silla. But when it was, it changed the country.

Gold crafted into regalia and personal adornments and used especially as gilding on bronze became a medium for Buddhist icons and reliquaries. In addition to representations of Siddhartha, Buddhist imageries include other Buddhas, bodhisattvas and a range of attendant deities. Korean representation of Buddhas and bodhisattvas from the sixth and early seventh centuries are characterized by round, unarticulated bodies sometimes covered with thick, cascading drapery.

Among the items exhibited is the famous Maitreya in Meditation, a seventh-century gilt-bronze Buddhist statue, which is designated National Treasure No. 83.

The statue, among 26 artifacts from the National Museum of Korea, was at the center of controversy as the Cultural Heritage Administration put a brake on moving protected cultural assets out of the country. It was only after the government issued special permission that the artifact was sent to the U.S. for the long-term exhibition.

“There have been five exhibitions about Korea in the past 10 years at the Met, but this one is different ― we have been preparing for it since 2008 and put a lot of effort into it,” said Soyoung Lee, curator of the exhibition.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)