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Stone Panel for Royal Tomb
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
This panel shows a figure with a human body and the features of a rat, which is one of the signs of the Asian zodiac, and is likely one of 12 granite panels from a royal tomb. It is probably from Gyeongju—the capital of the kingdoms of the Silla (57 BCE–668) and Unified Silla (688–935) periods—where large royal tomb mounds can still be found. This panel resembles those showing the animal signs of the Korean zodiac from the tomb of General Kim Yusin (595–673) in Gyeongju, the most famous tomb of the period.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineStone Panel for Royal Tomb (묘지석 [墓地石]), late 700s-early 800s. Korea, Unified Silla period (676-935). Granite; overall: 147.3 x 45.3 cm (58 x 17 13/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of The Honorable Joseph P. Carroll and Roberta Carroll, M.D. in memory of Mr. Gregory Henderson, 1988.249
