Page 154 - Bonhams Cornette Saint Cyr, Property from the estate of Jean-Pierre Rousset (1936-2021)

66
STATUE DE DIVINITÉ MASCULINE
EN GRÈS
Cambodge, style du Baphuon, XIe siècle
A SANDSTONE FIGURE OF A MALE DEITY
Cambodia, Baphuon style, 11th century
The elegant elongated torso with a sampot
rendered in narrow vertical pleats around
the right leg and spreading across the left in
broader fan-like manner. The fabric is drawn
between the thighs and arranged on the verso
in a fan-like fold that rises from beneath the
belt. The observation of the garment by the
artist is remarkable in the manner in which it is
secured with a delicately depicted overlapping
sash on the left side and is pulled under the
right side with a fold protruding artfully from
the top and the end draped in a scabbard-like
fold, stand.
98cm (38 5/8in) high. (2).

€50,000 - 80,000

Provenance:
Robert Rousset, Paris (1901-1981), acquired
from Peng Seng, Bangkok, 27 April 1965
Jean-Pierre Rousset, Paris (1936-2021)
This large torso of an unidentified
male sandstone deity presents all the
characteristics of the Baphuon style.
Departing from the earlier modelling focused
on power and plumpness, the emergences of
tendency to greater abstraction with slender
and more attenuated representation of the
human form. This is especially evident in
the more naturalistic treatment of the torso
tapering to narrow hips. The most notable
departure was the new fashion of sampot that
dominated the Baphuon sculptural style that
drew upon the Banteay Srei but adopts the
pleated fabric.
Compare with an a closely related example
in M.Brand and C.Phoeurn, in the The Age of
Angkor: Treasures from the National Museum
of Cambodia, Melbourne, 1992, p.74.

152 | BONHAMS