Male Deity (925–50): Art, History and Details

Male Deity (925–50) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The distinctive swath of pleated cloth and the anchor-shaped ends of the lower garment suggest that this sculpture was made when this method of wrapping the sampot was fashionable. During that time, Cambodian temples were dedicated to Hindu deities, whose images were dramatically installed alone on a pedestal in a temple's sanctum. When consecrated, gold tokens were installed under the pedestal; many sculptures were broken when people toppled them to get the gold.

Object facts

• Title: Male Deity
• Date: 925–50
• Culture: Cambodia, Koh Ker-Khleong style, 10th century
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: sandstone
• Dimensions: Overall: 135 cm (53 1/8 in.)
• Collection: Cambodian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1994.202

A detail from the museum

This male deity seems to be striding with his left leg advanced subtly forward.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “New Acquisitions Enter the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Permanent Collection,” February 14, 1995, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Czuma, Stanislaw J. "Slayer of the Buffalo Demon." The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine April 1997: pp. 8–9.
• Czuma, Stanislaw J., "A Cambodian Male Deity", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 36 no. 05, May 1996

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.