Angkor Bas Reliefs
by Rob Hemphill
Title
Angkor Bas Reliefs
Artist
Rob Hemphill
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
Beautiful bas-reliefs are found throughout all of the Angkor Wat sites. These sculptures are in the main Angkor temple complex. The detail and complexity of the work is stunning to say the least.
Khmer sculpture refers to the stone sculpture of the Khmer Empire, which ruled a territory based on modern Cambodia, but rather larger, from the 9th to the 13th century. The most celebrated examples are found in Angkor, which served as the seat of the empire.
Earlier Khmer art were influenced by Indian influences of Hindu themes. By the 7th century, Khmer sculpture begins to drift away from its Hindu influences – pre-Gupta for the Buddhist figures, Pallava for the Hindu figures – and through constant stylistic evolution, it comes to develop its own originality, which by the 10th century can be considered complete and absolute. An example of Khmer style that totally departed from Indian sculpture tradition is the wholeness of its figure, which bears similarities to the ancient Egyptian sculpture.
Unlike almost all of Indian and Javanese Hindu-Buddhist stone sculptures, which were carved in high reliefs, slabs or supported by stelae on the figure's back, Khmer sculpture is carved wholly in the round. Khmer stone sculpture did not employ any stelae on the back of the figure to support it, as the result broken arms, hands or ankles vividly attested to the vulnerability of this format. Nevertheless, Khmer sculptors seems to wish their works to be seen from all sides in the garbagriha in the center of the temple. Khmers attempted to make free-standing statues, supported by an arch or by an attribute of the divinity such as a piece of clothing or a hand-held object.
Khmer sculpture soon goes beyond religious representation, which becomes almost a pretext in order to portray court figures in the guise of gods and goddesses. But furthermore, it also comes to constitute a means and end in itself for the execution of stylistic refinement, like a kind of testing ground. We have already seen how the social context of the Khmer kingdom provides a second key to understanding this art. But we can also imagine that on a more exclusive level, small groups of intellectuals and artists were at work, competing among themselves in mastery and refinement as they pursued a hypothetical perfection of style. (Wikipedia)
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Featured in the following FAA Groups:
"World Landscape Lovers of Art" 08/26/2020
"Hodge Podge" 08/11/2020
"Out Of The Ordinary" 08/08/2020
"Travel Art" 08/05/2020
"New FAA Uploads" 08/02/2020
"Awesome Asia" 08/01/2020
"The Grayscale Outdoors" 07/31/2020
"Daily Promotion" 07/31/2020
"Anything Architecture Buildings and Bridges" 07/31/2020
"Promote Your Work Here And Get Noticed" 07/31/2020
"The Road To Self Promotion" 07/31/2020
"Art and Meditation" 07/31/2020
"Black And White Photography" 07/31/2020
"Exploration Photography" 07/31/2020
"Fine Art America Professionals" 07/31/2020
"Your Story of Art" 07/30/2020
"The Top 50 Features" 07/30/2020
"Just Perfect" 07/30/2020
"Images That Excite You!" 07/30/2020
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Uploaded
July 30th, 2020
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Viewed 454 Times - Last Visitor from New York, NY on 03/25/2024 at 4:02 AM
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Comments (44)
Tatiana Travelways
Congratulations - Your beautiful artwork has been featured in the "Travel Art" gallery at Fine Art America! For further promotion, you can post it to the specific Travel Destinations galleries, our Facebook group and our Pinterest board - All the links are provided on our group's homepage.
Denise Harty
Congratulations on your feature in the Promote Your Work Here and Get Noticed group! L/F
Rob Hemphill
Cathy, thanks for the feature in the Anything Architecture Buildings and Bridges group!
Allan Van Gasbeck
Congratulations! Your outstanding artwork has been chosen as a FEATURE in the “The Gray Scale Outdoors” group on Fine Art America — You are invited to post your featured image to the featured image discussion thread as a permanent place to continue to get exposure even after the image is no longer on the Home Page.