The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

CAMBODIA: THE KHMERS 417
tions of Buddha, Siva, or Vishnu, are ideal
portrait statues of the Devaraja. This ethnic
flavour manifests itself in flat noses with flaring
nostrils and the voluptuous fullness of the lips.
The snail-shell curls of the Buddha heads and
the hair and beards of heads of men, like the
example probably from Koh Ker in our
illustration 349, are rendered with an engraved
precision of cutting that gives a certain hardness
to the carving. This same laborious treatment
of detail extends to the representation of the
jewelled intricacies of head-dresses. The effect
of these sculptures of the ninth and tenth
centuries is already one of dryness and hieratic
severity, lacking the feeling of vitality that
distinguished the works of the Funan Period.
The Khmer heads of the period of Angkor
Wat continue the rather hard style of the
pervious period of development [350]. The outline
of the mass of the hair is separated from
the face - sometimes by a broad band or edging
- as though it were a cap pulled over the skull
and ushnisha. The precise lineal definition of
the features is somewhat less marked ; the eyebrows
are very often carved in raised relief; but,
above all, these heads show a tendency in the
direction of sweetness of expression, accented
by the lowered lids and the set smile of the
thick and broad lips. This suggestion of inner
beatitude becomes a cliche of all later Khmer
sculpture. It is a manner that can be just as
meaningless and aesthetically displeasing as
349. Head of Vishnu from Koh Ker.
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts
350. Head of Buddha, Angkor style.
Philadelphia, Museum