What made this historic retard in Buddhist Pagoda between Shilla Dynasty and Koryeo Dynasty.

slowwalker (80)in #culture • 6 years ago

20171030

There was a mistery in Buddhist Art History in stone sculptures.
The thing is that the stone sculpures of Shilla dynasty is more precise and better in every aspect than that of Koryeo Dynasty, even though Koryeo Dyansty seceeded in Shilla Dynasty.
It must be a common sense that the technique have been progressing as time flows.
But in Korea, this common sense did not fit in Buddhist stone art in two dynasties.
The skill of Shilla dynasty which was former than Koryeo was absolutely better than that of Koryeo dynasty.

I don't know how I could explain this phenomenon.

Let's look at the pagoda and compare each other.

At first Shilla dynasty style. Below was the pagoda of Soo Deok Sa.
Actually the pagoda of Soo Deok Sa was estimated as an early work of Koryeo dynasty which was strongly influenced from Shilla dynasty. The pagoda of Shilla dynasty is much more beautiful and well balanced than that of early works of Goryeo dyanasty.

Below was the Koryeo dyanasty style in Gwan Chock Sa temple

Do you have any idea about what made this historic retard in Buddhist pagoda ?

#history #buddhism #korea #photography

6 years ago in #culture by slowwalker (80)

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johnjgeddes (75) 6 years ago

A thought-provoking post today, @slowwalker.

It's very evident that the pagoda from the Goryeo dynasty is inferior and crude in workmanship compared to the Shilla style.

I suspected that there was a simple explanation because I knew from my study of art and art history that progress in technique is not a straight line development - at times, it's more a case of one step forward and two steps back.

Sometimes the decline can come about because of political forces that change the society - for example,in the the west after the decline of the Roman empire, western Europe's culture and learning began to deteriorate. That's an aspect you might want to look at.

But, sometimes it's a matter of emphasis. The Shilla dynasty concentrated on stone - the Goryeo dynasty developed beautiful ceramic pottery called Celadon which was a technological breakthrough in Korean ceramics.

So, you see,@slowwalker, some aspects of society seem progressive and others regressive depending on emphasis.

When I taught English Literature I saw the same effect in students' writing - emphasis on non-print media such as computers and videos eroded students' writing and reading abilities.

Thank you for posing the question today, my friend - it caused me to seek out an answer to many things :)

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