Devi, probably Uma
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.This devi is two-armed and has a distinctive coiffure, alluding to Shiva’s long dreadlocks. She has the full figure of a mature woman, and her compelling humanism is suggestive of portraiture. Inscriptions from the seventh and early eighth centuries mention several queens (rajni) who reigned in this pre-Angkorian period; one, dated 803, records a four-generation local dynasty at Sambhupura, of which the last three rulers were queens directly descended from one another. This sculpture and cat. no. 94 may have served simultaneously as images of the goddess Uma and of a deified queen, likely the mother of the patron.
cat. no. 95
cat. no. 95
Artwork Details
- Title: Devi, probably Uma
- Date: last quarter of the 7th century
- Culture: Eastern Cambodia
- Medium: Sandstone
- Dimensions: H. 53 9/16 in. (136 cm); W. 20 1/16 in. (51 cm); D. 8 1/4 in. (21 cm); approx. Wt. 661.4 lbs (300 kg)
- Classification: Sculpture
- Credit Line: Lent by Musée National des Arts Asiatiques–Guimet, Paris (MG18094)
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art