KHMER, BAYON PERIOD, 13TH CENTURY

The present work, with exceptional early provenance, represents Shiva as an ascetic. As told in the narrative of the Kumārasambhava, or “Birth of Kumara,” Shiva disguised himself as a Brahmin ascetic meditating in the mountains to court his future wife Parvati, the daughter of Himalaya. When Shiva reveals himself, he retains the pointed beard depicted in this sculpture. Compare the work to a Bayon-style relief at Musée Guimet which depicts the bearded ascetic Shiva, staff in hand, approaching Parvati as she performs penance, illustrated by H. Jessup and T. Zéphir in Sculpture of Angkor and Ancient Cambodia: Millennium of Glory, 1997, pp.330-331, cat.no.112.
Bayon sculpture is characterized by a more earthly and human aesthetic of beauty that favored idealized portraits. Here, the sculptor has ably rendered the subtle modeling of the face, including the tear-shaped urna between sensitively accentuated brows sheltering Shiva’s defined eyes and a broad mouth with rimmed lips carved into a curled smile. Shiva’s tightly wound braids are tied into an elaborate chignon behind a foliate tiara, ornamented to great detail.