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

CEYLON
43^
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AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA
than an actual diadem. 8 A particularly beautiful
metal object from the treasure of Ayudhya is
golden plaque in the form of a swan or harhsa
[370]. 9 The moving abstraction of the bird's
a
tail, part flame, part plant, recalls the relief ornaments
of the Classic period of Angkor [338],
here reduced, in typical Siamese fashion, to an
even more heraldic pattern.
The Siamese from classical times excelled in
the ceramic art. The earliest type of indigenous
Siamese pottery was made during the Lopburi
Period and, like the architecture and sculpture
of this famous Buddhist site, reveals strong
Cambodian influence. The example illustrated
[371] resembles the terracotta amphoras of the
Angkor type [352], and, like them, is partially
covered with a brownish paint. These native
wares were replaced in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries by decorated glazed stoneware
vessels made in imitation of the designs of
the Tz'u Chou kilns of Sung China. 10 This
type of pottery was made at Sukhodaya and
Swankalok and also includes local imitations of
370. Gold plaque from Ayudhya.
Bangkok, National Museum
celadon. These types were continued in the fifteenth-century
kilns of Chiengmai. In ?.ddition
to this one should mention the Chinese wares
made for the Siamese market in the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries. The design consisted
of a polychromatic decoration under a colourless
glaze made in imitation of Siamese designs
of the Ayudhya Period.