Head of a Male Deity (<em>Deva</em>)
Khmer
Angkor period, late 12th–early 13th century
Medium
Sandstone
Dimensions
87 × 45.7 × 40.6 cm (34 1/4 × 18 × 16 in.)
Classification
sculpture
Department
Arts of Asia
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
86340
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This imposing, colossal head was likely part of an eight-foot-tall kneeling deity from a set of fifty-four statues that lined one side of a causeway leading to one of the five entrances of the imperial Khmer capital of Angkor Thom, Cambodia. At the heart of the city stood the Bayon temple, built during the powerful reign of Jayavarman VII (1181–1218). The statues depict the Hindu cosmic myth of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk. On opposite sides of the causeway, both gods (devas) and demons (as...