Head of a Deity or a Deified King (mid-900s): Art, History and Details

Head of a Deity or a Deified King (mid-900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The diadem is depicted tied to the intricate tiered headdress worn only by a god or king. Without further attributes, the identity cannot be known. Khmer sculptors of the 10th century emphasized powerful forms and extroverted expressions. The incised pupils suggest that this sculpture underwent the ritual of awakening, in which the eyes were added last. The royal head on the left is from a temple dedicated to Shiva, which was established by the Khmer king Jayavarman IV (928–942) in his remote capital of Koh Ker, 100 miles north of Angkor.

Object facts

• Title: Head of a Deity or a Deified King
• Date: mid-900s
• Culture: Cambodia, Koh Ker, Reign of Jayavarman IV, 928-941
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: sandstone
• Dimensions: Overall: 37.4 cm (14 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Cambodian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1923.95

Collection credit

Dudley P. Allen Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Sizer, Theodore. "The New Khmer Head." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 10, no. 6 (June 1923): 113–116.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1925.
• Groslier, George. Arts et archéologie khmers: revue des recherches sur les arts, les monuments et l'ethnographie du Cambodge, depuis les origines jusqu'à nos jours. v. 2 (1924–1926). Paris: Société d'éditions géographiques, maritimes et coloniales, 1922–1926.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.