To mark the centenary of the death of Louis Delaporte (1842-1925), the explorer and artist who introduced France to the Angkor complex, this exhibition is showing a series of bronzes from the Khmer empire. Louis Delaporte was the French mission’s artist (and first curator of the Musée Indochinois, which was largely dedicated to plaster cast Khmer sculpture and architecture). On Delaporte’s death the museum was amalgamated into the Musée Guimet.
Angkor is widely considered to be among the world’s most magnificent architectural masterpieces – its extensive complexes and detailed stone sculptures, reliefs, and architecture. Angkor, the capital of the Khmer civilization, was the most powerful and opulent empire in Southeast Asia between the 10th and 13th centuries – and one of the most original civilisations in ancient Indochina.
Angkor’s renown outside Asia grew largely because of the French missions of 1866 and 1873 and their initial efforts to explore the area. The watercolours made by members during these missions can also be credited with creating interest in the region. These missions were primarily reconnaissance trips organised by the French navy to see if the Mekong was a navigable ‘road’ to south-western China – they also led to the first archaeological survey of Khmer monuments, which was published within the expedition’s official report of 1873.
First Visit to Angkor Wat
The initial visit to Angkor Wat had a profound effect on Delaporte, as he subsequently dedicated the rest of his life to exploring, researching, and promoting Khmer art and culture to both French and international audiences. Reflecting on his experience of the ruins in 1866, he recalled, ‘The sights of these strange ruins struck me, too, with a keen astonishment, I admired the bold and grandiose design of these monuments no less than the perfect harmony of all their parts. Khmer art, issuing from the mixture of India and China, purified and ennobled by artists whom one might call the Athenians of the Far East, has remained the most beautiful expression of human genius in this vast part of Asia that extends from the Indus to the Pacific’.
Angkor, the capital of the Khmer empire, dominated mainland Southeast Asia for over five centuries and kept many of the vestiges of its past glory, including monuments of unparalleled beauty and scale. However, while the architecture and stone sculpture of the Khmer temples (9th to 15th centuries) are frequently celebrated, it is often forgotten that these Buddhist and Brahmanical shrines used to host a whole population of divinities and objects of worship made of precious metals, including gold, silver, and gilt bronze.
While Khmer art is mainly seen through its stone sculptures and monuments, recent research has provided dramatic breakthroughs regarding knowledge about the culture’s significant bronze works. Earlier, archaeological discoveries have revealed evidence of metalworking at Bronze and Iron Age sites in the greater Tonle Sap region, an area that became the heartland of the Khmer empire, although the Khmer were not direct descendants of these Iron Age peoples.
Khmer sculptors produced figural images of divinities in response to Hinduism and Buddhism that had arrived in mainland Southeast Asia by the 5th century. Indian traders and travelling priests brought knowledge of Shiva, Vishnu, and other Hindu gods. Buddhist texts and images carried by Chinese pilgrims who passed through the region on their way to and from the holy sites in India also had an influence on Khmer culture. In the pre-Angkor period (500–800), as Khmer metalworkers developed the skills to cast sculptural figures by experimenting with transforming older, established representations into new versions befitting local religious and aesthetic traditions. This process eventually led to the distinctive sculptural styles associated with the classic Angkor period (9th to 15th centuries).
Angkor Royal Bronzes
Bronze, a mixture of metals consisting primarily of copper and tin, was a preferred medium for giving form to the Hindu and Buddhist divinities worshipped in Angkor and throughout the Khmer empire. The Khmer have always viewed bronze as a noble material, connoting prosperity and success, and it has played a deeply meaningful role in their culture over many centuries. Metalwork was exclusively commissioned by the king and involved a sacred technique, carefully guarded within the confines of the workshops next to the royal palace.
The Khmer people favoured the lost-wax process of casting for sacred images from the 7th century onwards. This presumes that the stonemasons’ skills in carving could easily transferred to carving wax models for bronze casting. In the lost-wax method, the moulten metal is left in the mould to cool after the clay/wax is melted away by heat. Small objects could be solid cast whereas larger works would have been hollow cast with a core made of clay or plaster, encasing it in a fireproof mould. When baked, the wax runs out, and moulten bronze is poured into the space left by the melted wax.
Reclining Vishnu
The highlight of this new exhibition of Angkor royal bronzes in Paris is the large Reclining Vishnu from the 11th-century West Mebon temple, which is situated on an island in the centre of the West Baray (reservoir) in Western Angkor. The Mebon was originally built by King Udayadityavarman II (r 1050-66). After having undergone scientific analyses and restoration in France in 2024, the Reclining Vishnu, a national treasure of Cambodia, is on show in France for the first time. The bronze was discovered in 1936 by a local village, who it is said saw the Buddha in a dream and was told exactly where the sculpture was buried. Only the fragment on show was recovered (the whole figure is believed to have measured more than 4 metres, with the rest of the sculpture having fallen into the lake when it was broken up).
This featured sculpture is presented alongside more than 200 objects, including the Angkor royal bronzes, and 126 loans from the National Museum of Cambodia to take the visitor on a journey through the major Khmer heritage sites to discover the evolution of bronze art in Cambodia, from protohistory to the present day.
Vaishnavite temple of Angkor Wat
The Vaishnavite temple of Angkor Wat was established during the reign of Suryavarman II, who was a worshipper of Vishnu and is considered one of the most beautiful of all Khmer monuments, representing the height of the classical age of the empire. The state temple of Suryavarman at Angkor was built during the first half of the 12th century and is surrounded by a moat, occupying an area of approximately 1,500 metres. The northwestern and southwestern pavilions contain the large bas-reliefs telling the epics of Khmer culture, along with depictions of apsaras and devatas. The art from the reign of Jayavarman VII (1122-1218), from the end of the 12th century, marked the change in religion to Buddhism, with his entire reign marked by Buddhist compassion. Buddhist art was seen earlier in Khmer culture, especially in the last years of the 10th century, but it was during the reign of Jayavarman VII that Buddhist art reached its aesthetic high point, with the inclusion of realism in the styling of the sculpture. The masterpiece of his reign is the town of Angkor Thom and the temple at its centre – the mysterious Bayon, the only Buddhist state temple of the period.
This exhibition of Angkor royal bronzes brings together a collection of important works, some exhibited for the very first time, including statues, objects, and architectural elements, as well as photographs, casts, and documents to place the bronzes in their political, cultural, and technical context as well as their archaeological and historical importance. There are works of art from across France and Cambodia, including the National Museum of Cambodia, granted by the Royal Government, as part of the collaboration between the Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, the C2RMF (Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France), the EFEO (École française d’Extrême-Orient), and from the Guimet’s own collection.
Until 8 September, Musée Guimet, Paris, guimet.fr
From 22 May to 21 September, From Loches to Angkor: Louis Delaporte, the Adventure of a Lifetime, at the Lansyer Museum and Logis Royal in Loches, France
