A rare head of King 'Jayavarman VII' (reigned 1181 - 1218?)

Description:

Cambodia, Khmer, Bayon period, 12th/13th cent.
H. 21 cm
The head is carved with a serene, meditative facial expression displaying closed eyes
below slightly arched eyebrows, short nose with dilated nostrils, smiling
pouting lips, well-defined ears and his tightly combed hair starting from the nape of his neck is indicated by fine, regular incisions and swept up to form a small, single knot at the top of his head, on base.
Important South German private collection, acquired at Nagel, 3. 11.1999, lot 2605 from the Kappei collection, according to tradition collected before 1980
This superb sculpted stone head belongs to a very small group of comparable heads and figures presumed to be representations of king Jayavarman VII. They all share the same physical treats of the fullness of the face and the softness of its volumes and contours. The forms are simple, thus suggesting the simplicity of a royal person. The eyes are closed to the impermanence of earthly matters though at the same time expressing a strong internal power. All published examples show a peaceful appearance with a fine meditative smile. The few surviving examples show the king at a slightly different stages of his life, some younger and others older. The latter group depict him with a heavier lower part of the face and a softer and more relaxed expression than the younger ones. Such a fine example of the more mature king is on exhibit at Musee Guimet (inv. no. P 430). The presented head seems to show him during his earlier years as his facial expression is still of a more firm one.
A larger stone head of Jayavarman VII is in the National Museum of Phnom Penh and for instance published by Helen Ibbitson Jessup and Thierry Zephir in ’Sculpture of Angkor and Ancient Cambodia: Millennium of Glory’, National Gallery of Art, Washington 1997, plate 89. The same publication illustrates an almost complete seated figure of Jayavarman VII on page 300. Another stone head is on permanent display in Musee Guimet, Paris, and published by Pierre Baptiste and Thierry Zephir in ‘L’Art Khmer dans les collections du Musee Guimet’, Editions de la Reunion des musees nationaux, Paris 2008, pp. 262 - 267, (inv. no. P.430) - Traces of age, partially darkened old restorations to the surface, somewhat tarnished