Two more of the impressive Khmer artifacts

Khmer Art Overseas: Two more of the impressive Khmer artifacts that came under the gavel at the two-day auction in Paris by Bonhams and Cornette de Saint Cyr last October, are a gorgeous head of a male god and another outstanding example of a female deity from the Baphuon-era, thought by many to be the crowning point of Khmer art. This auction of Asian art from the private family collection of Robert and Jean-Pierre Rousset, which they began in the 1920s, fetched €14.5 million for the 341 items on sale. Robert Rousset was a regular customer of Bangkok galleries in the 1960s and both of these antiquities were purchased from the Capital Antique dealership in 1966, at a time when the looting of Khmer temples was in full swing and statues and carvings were heading across the Cambodian/Thai border and into the showrooms of Bangkok-based dealers. They both carry the hallmarks of looted treasures. The head of the male deity is dated to the Pre Rup style of the third quarter of the tenth century, with a naturalistic and serene face. The eyebrow arches come together in a single soft line, the nostrils slightly flared, eyes defined with delicate lines and fleshy mouth with a very slight smile and faint suggestion of a moustache. Two bands of hair protrude from the diadem descending on the temples to continue with a beard defined as a dotted line, finishing in a point at the center of the chin. The elongated earlobes are pierced and may have been adorned with precious metal pendants. The head is adorned with a royal diadem carved to imitate real gold that was attached at the back by ribbons tied in a square knot, with a tiered octagonal pagoda style chignon. The piece sold for more than double its pre-sale estimate, fetching €75,975. It stands at 36.5 centimeters in height. The identity of our standing female deity could be a representation of Prajnaparamita, the mother of all Buddhas, with an erased front section of her domed hair bun suggesting a now missing Amitabha Buddha, whereas most similarly sculpted female deities of the 11th century Baphuon art style are often identified as Uma. Her place, as wife of the god Shiva, and daughter of the mountains, gave her such powers as the deity of fertility, power, energy, devotion, marriage, motherhood, children, love, and harmony – essentially the Mother Goddess. She stands at 90 centimeters tall, without her feet and two arms, wearing a finely pleated, high-waisted sampot secured by a patterned belt knotted at the front while a fishtail section falls downwards, her upper body is naked with well-defined breasts and incised navel. Her lips offer a hint of a smile, with narrow incised eyes and pierced though broken earlobes. She also outpaced her pre-auction estimate, with her sale price reaching €57,075.