Provenance:
Galerie De Blauwe Olifant, Maastricht, April 1989
European Private Collection
The elegant divinity’s svelte figure is clothed in a diaphanous sampot with fine, vertically-incised folds. The garment is secured by a wide, plain belt securing a stylized fabric dagger at his right hip and a fan of overlapping fabric pleats on his left thigh. His four arms are fragmentary.
The sculpture created during this period represents an apex never quite equaled again in Khmer art, revealing a style of unsurpassed perfection and restraint. The gods are handsome and well-built Khmer aristocratic male figures, and the goddesses are beautiful, sensuous, graceful females.
The Baphuon is a temple located in Angkor Thom, northwest of the Bayon. Also called "golden mountain" (svarnādrī), the Baphuon is built on an artificial hill. The temple was originally dedicated to Shiva and later converted to a Theravada Buddhist temple. Erected in the mid 11th century, it is a three-tiered temple mountain built as the state temple of Suryavarman I and dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. It is the archetype of the Baphuon style, with intricate carvings covering every available surface.
