Artwork Page for Vishnu

Details / Information for Vishnu

Vishnu

650–700

Cambodia

Medium
sandstone
Measurements
Overall: 49.9 cm (19 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1942.563
Public Domain
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Location
243 Indian and Southeast Asian
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Did You Know?

The deity is four-armed with the arms running parallel from the shoulders and then bifurcating at the elbows.

Description

Vishnu has the features of royalty, indicated by the high mitre-like crown with the flat top, distinctive to types made at the site of Prasat Andet. His status as a god, greater than any earthly king, is indicated by the four arms, traces of which are still visible. The sensitive rendering of the eyes and slight smile are characteristics of Cambodian sculpture, and during this early period, the form of the body reveals some relatively naturalistic musculature and treatment of the garments. He wears the Southeast Asian lower garment called sampot, around which his upper garment is loosely tied. It is Vishnu who incarnates himself into the world in avatars, including Krishna and the boar Varaha. Here we see his iconic form as Vishnu himself.
A gray-brown, coarse-textured sculpture is broken off just below the waist, from the left shoulder, and the right arm just below the elbow, from where two arms would branch. The figure wears a cylindrical cap, has elongated ears, and smiles faintly. Finely carved lines indicate wrapped cloth around the waist, below the figure's slim bare chest and broad shoulders.

Vishnu

650–700

Cambodia

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