The Measured Art: A Proportional Analysis of Early Khmer Sculpture

Bangkok: White Lotus, 2011. The Measured Art: A Proportional Analysis of Early Khmer Sculpture Offers an innovative approach to interpreting early Khmer sculpture. This book presents a proportional analysis in which measurements are taken directly from the images. In the absence of historical evidence about artistic practices in early Cambodia, this provides us with a new understanding of how the early Khmer sculptor calculated and manipulated the composition of his imagery. It further makes it possible to establish the first objective database for comparing the measurements of one form or image with another. The imagery, thereby, becomes actively involved in revealing its own historical narrative by clearly articulating in numerical terms how early Khmer sculpture changed overtime. Although early Khmer sculpture is aesthetically unique, its proportional systems rely heavily on ancient Indian texts concerning iconometry or proper proportions that are known elsewhere in other parts of the Indian world. Early Khmer sculpture hardly modifies these proportional systems over a period of nearly 200 years. Such evidence differs in part from a widely held opinion that the populations of Southeast Asia selectively adopted and then adapted Indian cultural traditions. Of special interest to scholars, curators, collectors and dealers is the practical application of proportional analysis in dating and authenticating early Khmer sculpture. 174 pp, 41 col. & 10 b&w plates, map . First Edition. Soft Cover. New. 29 x 21 cm..