Architectural element. Late XIth-early XIIth century, Chàn Lô style, Thu Thiên group. Brown sandstone. H. 57.2 cm, W 34.3 cm, D. 31.1 cm. Asian Art Museum of San Francisco BL77S2. Loan from The Christensen Fund.

The Thu Thiên group, which belongs to the Chàn Lô style, was named after a presumably Buddhist temple, now destroyed, where inside the shrine the reredos displayed ten female worship ers with only the upper part of their bodies jutting out of the wall. (Boisselier 1962 a : 276 and Fig. 188). This was apparently an emulation of the composition seen in the vihâra of the late IXth century Dông Du'o'ng temple (Boisselier 1963 a : Fig. 55), which must have inspired the Cham artists who created the Thu Thiên monument some two centuries later. A very similar image is housed in the Art Institute of Chicago, but unfortunately, we were unable to secure the illustration in time for publication. Cf A Collecting Odyssey, Indian and Southeast Asian from the James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection, Thames and Hudson, London, 1997: 209, cat. n° 277.

"Some Remarkable Cham sculptures in American Museums" Natasha Eilenberg, Robert L. Brown

 

 

 

Article de "La Lettre de la SACHA" n°6, décember 1999, page 9.