Early Buddhist art in Korea: towards the question of specificity of artistic language

The article is devoted to the question of the originality and uniqueness of the artistic lan-guage of the Korean Peninsula, the relevance of which has become especially strong in the stud-ies of the last decade. The author pays attention to the reasons why, until recently, Korean art was in the shadow of neighbouring China and Japan. The focus of the study is the Buddhist art of Ko-rea in the 6th to 7th centuries, a period when the artistic language of the sacred art of the region was just being formed. Due to the fact that the art of Buddhism in general cannot be considered in isolation from the Buddhist tradition (its philosophy, texts, rituals), the author pays attention to the context in which the Buddhist teaching of Korea existed, and also reveals its role in interac-tion with the territories of China, Japan, and Tibet. Against this background, early works of Bud-dhist art of Korea and their relationship with the Chinese artistic tradition are considered; their main similarities and differences are revealed. Particular attention is paid to the image of the Bodhisattva Maitreya, the Buddha of the Future, popular in the territory of the Korean Peninsula during this period. In addition, the author focuses on the influence of the Korean artistic tradition on the formation of the Japanese artistic language.