Artwork Page for Pair of naga finials

Details / Information for Pair of naga finials

Pair of naga finials

1100s

Cambodia, probably Angkor

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Medium
bronze
Measurements
Overall: 29.2 x 15.2 x 15.2 cm (11 1/2 x 6 x 6 in.)
Credit Line
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1987.14
Public Domain
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Location
244 Indian and Southeast Asian
Print

Description

When members of the royal family or priesthood traveled in a public festival procession or to a temple to make offerings or participate in a ceremony, they would be carried in a palanquin, or a covered litter. Portable objects of veneration, such as bronze images or a sacred fire, were also carried on palanquins. The palanquins had wooden poles, hanging seats or raised platforms, and bronze fittings cast in intricate forms and gilt, lending the palanquins a sumptuous quality.

The royal palanquins were typically fitted with multiheaded, serpent-shaped finials at the ends of the poles and corners of the elevated platforms.

Naga means serpent in Sanskrit, a language from India selectively appropriated by the Khmer in Cambodia. In their own indigenous mythology, the Khmer people trace their descent from a naga princess and a prince from the island of Java who journeyed to Cambodia. The naga remains a potent emblem for the Khmer nation to this day; it is ubiquitous on Cambodian monuments.
Two identical, corroded bronze finials of a multi-headed serpent. The serpents look straight out, the central head the largest with a forked tongue sticking out and curves like eyebrows repeating in layers until they reach an overarching row of spikes that create the overall round shape of the serpent heads. Two more serpent heads flank on either side, getting smaller and partially cut off by the serpent head in front of them.

Pair of naga finials

1100s

Cambodia, probably Angkor

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