Gods of Angkor: Bronzes from the National Museum of Cambodia

Description:

A remarkable group of seven bronze figures was unearthed in Kampong Cham province, Cambodia, in 2006. These sixth- and seventh-century Buddhist sculptures, two of which were Chinese, ultimately were acquired by the National Museum of Cambodia. There they became one of the first projects of the institution’s Metal Conservation Laboratory, created with help from the Department of Conservation and Scientific Research at the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, DC. The newly conserved figures were presented for the first time outside Cambodia in the exhibition Gods of Angkor: Bronzes from the National Museum of Cambodia, on view at the Sackler Gallery in 2010 and at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, in 2011.

The accompanying catalogue celebrates not only the collaborative efforts of the Cambodian and US museums to restore and interpret these important images, but also the accomplishments of Khmer bronze casters from the third century BCE to the fourteenth century CE. The authors decipher the makeup and meaning of bronze or figural images, ritual vessels, and other objects, placing them in the context of Southeast Asian life and worship from prehistoric times through the pre-Angkorian and Angkorian eras. Together, the bronzes reveal vivid details of the artistic and religious interactions of the Khmer with their neighbors.

Related Exhibition