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JSS 099 0R Reviews17 REVIEWS 339 de-emphasizing its Lao and Khmer Studies on the Art of Ancient Cambodia: antecedents. Therefore, this book Ten Articles by Jean Boisselier, tr. & comes as a very rare treat. Identifying ed. by NATASHA EILENBERG & ROBErt a forgotten artistry that is quickly lost L. BROWN (Phnom Penh: Reyum in assimilation, it gives lavish insight Publishing, 2008). ISBN 978 999 5055 and celebrates the sensational artistic 38 7 (soft) expression of the Isan people. The dominating indigo and its various shades Jean Boisselier (b. Paris 1912 – d. and tones illustrate the creativity of a Paris 1996) was arguably the 20th cen- community restricted to natural pigments tury’s preeminent scholar of mainland but yet seemingly unfettered. The Southeast Asia art history. Over the startling sense of liberation portrayed course of a long career that consisted by the ever-present sensuality will of various institutional affiliations, captivate the reader. Tempting them to including the Phnom Penh Museum scrutinize these erotic scenes invites (now the National Museum of Cam- the understanding of a community that bodia), the École française d’Extrême openly embraces their desires. Above Orient (EFEO), the Centre national all, the amalgamation of royals, deities de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), and peasants in one composition is a rare Silpakorn University, and the Univer- sight— impossible to be found in such sity of Paris-III, Boisselier generated a small compass anywhere in Thailand, prodigious body of erudite scholarship thus conveying the unique democratic predominantly on the art histories of lifestyle of the Isan heartland. Cambodia, Thailand, and the Cham of Even though the book design leaves Vietnam, much of which continues to much to be desired, the intention to set the standard today. With this book, highlight a declining form of art is art historians Natasha Eilenberg (an commendable. The substance of the independent scholar) and Robert Brown subject is so rich and bewitching it (University of California, Los Ange- bursts out of the pages. If only the les) have gathered ten of Boisselier’s composition of the book had been given most important articles on Khmer art, more thought, the book would be singing all originally published in French, and in soprano! But then as the old English provided painstaking English-language proverb goes, ‘Don’t judge a book by translations with helpful annotations and its cover!’ insightful introductions to each essay. Students and scholars of early Khmer Tulaya Pornpiriyakulchai art and culture, and of early Southeast Asia in general, will find it to be a very important and useful publication. Nearly twenty years in the making, Studies on the Art of Ancient Cambodia represents the third of Natasha Eilen- Journal of the Siam Society, Vol. 99, 2011 340 REVIEWS berg’s published projects intended to of SPAFA Digest. Some of his work honor Boisselier (her teacher and friend) on Mon/Dvaravati, Thai, and Cham art and to bring his scholarship and legacy history has already appeared in English. greater exposure among English-reading Most of these citations are included in audiences. It was preceded first by an the convenient “Selected Bibliography expanded English edition of Boisselier’s of Jean Boisselier” placed at the begin- Tendances de l’art khmèr, originally pub- ning of Studies on the Art of Ancient lished in 1956 (Boisselier 1989). Next Cambodia. Published previously in there appeared a festschrift co-edited with Living a Life in Accord with Dhamma Brown and M. C. Subhadradis Diskul, (and elsewhere), it was compiled by Living a Life in Accord with Dhamma, Madeleine Giteau, another of the most with diverse contributions from scholars distinguished French art historians of worldwide that reflected the immense Cambodia who sadly is no longer with scope of both Boisselier’s influence and us. Suffice it to say that Studies on the interests (Eilenberg et al 1997). Art of Ancient Cambodia was sanctioned Eilenberg and Elliott’s Trends in by the author himself and appears to Khmer Art received high praise from have been a collaborative labor of love Boisselier himself and plans thereafter by scholars who knew the man and his ensued to publish English translations work quite well. of several of his articles as well. Thus This Boisselier compilation joins Studies on the Art of Ancient Cambodia other recent English-language transla- opens with a copy of a letter, written by tions of seminal French scholarship Boisselier to Brown and Eilenberg in Oc- on Southeast Asian art history by tober 1990, authorizing them to proceed Mireille Bénisti and Pierre Dupont. and stipulating that the choice of articles These three scholars, continuing the would be decided by mutual consent. pioneering work of Philippe Stern and Given Boisselier’s initial involvement Gilberte de Coral Rémusat, developed with the project, one can hardly quibble an art historical method for sculpture with the resultant contents of this book. and architecture that remains respon- It is worth mentioning, however, that sible for much of what we know about they are the tip of an iceberg, and there Khmer art history, particularly in terms are many other worthy candidates that of chronology and stylistic categories. do not appear here, including important They also did much to advance the study studies of Preangkorian lintels, ancient and theory of the concept of “style” for Khmer bronzes, and the development the discipline of art history as a whole, of the diadem in Angkorian period although their contributions often go sculpture. For the interested reader, it unrecognized by art historians working may also be helpful to note that several outside of Southeast Asia. While new of Boisselier’s other articles, but none evidence and new ways of thinking have of the aforementioned, were previously led some scholars to question some of translated into English in various issues their arguments, it is nevertheless the Journal of the Siam Society, Vol. 99, 2011 REVIEWS 341 case that their work is the foundation and are best read together. Through upon which all subsequent research on intricate formal analysis, they establish early Khmer art rests and with which the relative chronology of temples and new theories must reckon. As Brown statuary spanning the period from the writes of Boisselier in his introduction, end of the Baphuon to the beginning “...it remains that only by knowing what of the Bayon style, or from ca. 1080- he has argued can we make any clear 1180 CE. Related to these is the much judgments regarding where our scholar- shorter article translated as ch. 8 [(“A ship should lead.” (p. vii). Khmer Torso in the Oriental Museum of The methodology developed by these Venice” (1960)], which brings precision scholars posits an internal logic to the to the beginning of the Baphuon style “evolution” of artistic motifs. By orient- of sculpture (as well as the preceding ing analysis around relatively securely style of Banteay Srei) by focusing on dated monuments, the stylistic sequence the peculiarities and dating of a single of undated sculpture and architecture lesser-known image. Bĕṅ Mãlã (more can be ascertained through minute commonly spelled today as Beng Mea- analysis of their constituent parts, in lea), a major temple complex that has sculpture primarily through details of thus far yielded no inscriptions, proved coiffure, costume, and jewelry and, in particularly susceptible to art histori- architecture, through elements like lin- cal methods. Boisselier’s comparative tels, colonnettes, pediments, pilasters, analysis of the architectural layout, ele- etc. Boisselier’s masterful application ments, and decoration—as well as the of this approach is on full display in sculpture from the site—is significant Studies on the Art of Ancient Cambodia’s for demonstrating that it is a temple ten essays, which are organized accord- contemporary with Angkor Wat rather ing to the original dates of publication than an earlier monument as scholars (covering the period 1951-1991). had previously thought. The first three essays (ch. 1-3), to- “Garuḍa in Khmer Art” (ch. 1) in- gether constituting over half of the entire corporates analysis of iconography as book, are particularly strong and thor- well as style in order to demonstrate the ough examples of Boisselier’s method- typology, developmental chronology, ology: “Garuḍa in Khmer Art” (1951), and innovations of Garuḍa images in “Bĕṅ Mãlã and the Chronology of the Khmer sculpture from the 7th-13th/14th Monuments of the Aṅkor [Angkor] Wat centuries. The study is particularly no- Style” (1952), and “A Definition of the table for demonstrating the adaptations Aṅkor Wat Sculptural Style” (1952). that Garuḍa underwent after his initial These essays remain the definitive word appearance in Preangkorian Khmer art on each of these topics. The two 1952 (pre-9th cent. CE) in what Boisselier essays are companion pieces that were calls the “traditional” and “Indianized” published back-to-back in the Bulletin role as adversary of the nāgas. This de l’École française d’Extrême Orient role continued in the Angkorian period, Journal of the Siam Society, Vol. 99, 2011 342 REVIEWS but then Garuḍa also began to appear as “all of the important early female sculp- an independent divinity and as Viṣṇu’s ture known up until that time,” as the vāhana. Finally, during the 12th-13th editors state in their introduction. This centuries, Garuḍa was re-envisioned, depends on what is meant by “early;” apparently in a specifically and exclu- for the corpus of Preangkorian female sively Khmer manner, from a Vaiṣṇava sculpture known then, one also needs to to a Mahayana Buddhist divinity and consult Pierre Dupont, La statuaire pré- protector of the Buddha and some nāgas. angkorienne, published the same year as This essay is most usefully read along- Boisselier’s article (Dupont 1955). In side Boisselier’s numerous studies of ch.
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