KOGURYO STYLE

Korean visual-arts style characteristic of the Koguryo kingdom (37 BCAD 668) of the Three Kingdoms period. The Koguryo were a horse-riding northern people, and their art was powered by the forceful spirit of a hunter-warrior tribe. Their fresco paintings on the walls of tombs are characterized by movement and emotion rather than formal beauty and decorative visual effect. Outlines are bold and forceful to heighten the effect of movement and animation. Buddhist sculpture tended to develop a schematic approach to emphasize a spiritual, expressive quality during the late Koguryo period. As a whole, Koguryo art is powerful and emotional compared with the arts of the two southern kingdoms, Silla and Paekche.