Royal Female Figure (late 1000s): Art, History and Details

Royal Female Figure (late 1000s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The identity of this figure is uncertain, since the objects she held are missing, and no other related sculptures have been located. Since she has only two arms and wears a crown, she is probably a royal woman. Semiprecious stones or metals, such as onyx or silver, would have been inlaid into her eyes and eyebrows, further enlivening her image. The gilded adornments are set off against her dark shining skin to dazzling effect. Most Cambodian stone sculptures have lost their gold jewelry, so this figure gives an accurate impression of how many would have looked when installed in their sanctuaries.

Object facts

• Title: Royal Female Figure
• Date: late 1000s
• Culture: Cambodia
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: partially gilt bronze and silver
• Dimensions: Overall: 35.5 cm (14 in.)
• Collection: Cambodian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1982.51

A detail from the museum

This royal female figure's eyebrows and pupils were originally inlaid with silver or semiprecious stones.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Pal, Pratapaditya. The Sensuous Immortals: A Selection of Sculptures from the Pan-Asian Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1977.
• Lee, Sherman E. “Year in Review for 1982.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 70, no. 1 (1983): 3–55.

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.