Page 56 - Studio International - June 1969

South-east Asia is the latest great province of
art of Indian tradition to be laid under tribute
to occidental acquisitiveness. What until
recently was a specialist taste is offered to
West-End conoscenti, and with great success.
One may well wonder where it all comes from,
at a time when other kinds of Asian art get
rarer on the market. It seems, as happened
earlier in the case of India, that the attempts
of local authorities to control the export of
art objects have if anything stimulated the
appreciation and acquisition of southeast
Asian sculpture abroad, to the degree that in
the United States at least it is increasingly
handled by the regular art dealer. Apart from
an exhibition held by the enterprising Messrs
ROLAND, BROWSE AND DELBANCO two years ago,
and now repeated in an even more impressive
killing, the British public has had little chance
to share in this interest and opportunity.
The collection now on view is remarkable in
the first place for the comparatively large
number of early pieces which it includes. With
them begins the mystery of the stylistic
transformation which south-east Asia imposed
on the themes it borrowed. Three small
standing figures of the Buddha and the stucco
mask of a larger Buddha image represent the
style of the Dvaravati kingdom of the Mon
(6th-1 1 th century) whose Buddhism was of
Hinayana tradition and came east through
Burma. The stucco mask stands for a school
of sculpture unique in Asia for its sensitive
modelling. Something of the same quality is
reflected in the small bronzes in spite of their
primitive technique. The introduction of
quality is seen however in a torso of Siva
Mahayana Buddhism coincided broadly with
belonging to the high Khmer style of the
the transfer to stone, and modelling gave
13th century, contemporary with the Ang-
place to carving. The earliest Mahayana
kor temples. There are a number of these
piece in the collection, and one of the finest, is
figures in the collection, and separate heads
a small seated Buddha figure in bronze
that belong to similar figures, but none ap-
crowned like a Bodhisattva, an iconographic
proaches this particular piece in finesse of
form peculiar to south-east Asia and rather
the flesh surface and in delicate line. For
unaccountable in terms of the wider tradition.
quality it may be compared with another
This piece the catalogue hopefully designates
standing Siva (complete with head for once)
Srivijaya style, falling between the 7th and
in which these subtleties are lacking.
12th centuries. It is nearer the latter date,
They are lacking also for the most part from
but still pre-Khmer.
the small bronze figures of this period, though
Khmer works provide the largest single some of these are fair examples of their kind.
category of sculpture: the quality of these The most impressive free-standing piece of
varies considerably, but it remains astonishing distinctly Cambodian style is the large stone
that so many could be brought together. image of Buddha seated on the three serpent
Khmer sculpture flourished in the regions of coils with the six serpent heads raised as a
Lopburi and Pimai, Siam having come under canopy behind his head, work of the pre-
Cambodian rule between 1100 and 1250, and Angkor date and rare.
it is to this Siamese school rather than to the
Compared with earlier work the presentation
equivalent product of Cambodia itself that
of Uthong and Ayudha sculpture is less in
the bulk of the pieces exhibited belongs. The
quantity and of average quality; and the
centre piece of the show is a deep-cut bas
bulk of it is those unhappy small Buddha heads
relief, 30 x 40 inches, of Vishnu reclining on
which have been detached from the bodies for
the dragon Sesha. In the background a
no intelligible reason, not even profit. The
many-armed and many-headed Buddhist
exhibition is recommended on the strength of
deity is raised on a lotus stem. The whole, and
the Mon and Khmer work, for it is here that
the faces of Vishnu and attendant in particu- the gallery has made a mark.
n
lar, suggest that the work was executed at
Pimai, although the catalogue records it as
coming from 'the area of Angkor'. The finest