God Shiva

Angkor period, 13th century

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

This bronze icon of the Hindu god Shiva differs in several aspects from his original renditions in India. Here, Shiva is identifiable by his snake armband and the presence of his third eye, with his long hair tied up in a topknot like that of an ascetic. He appears with all the weight and importance of a mature, distinguished royal personage. Around the neck and shoulders he bears a multi-strand necklace; in his ears are massive, pendant earrings; and around the hips he wears a patterned sampot with a long ornamental panel falling in a point over his thigh. This sculpture was discovered in the Mekong Delta, in southern Vietnam, although it may have been moved there from elsewhere in the Angkor kingdom.

Status: On View, Gallery 142
Department: Arts of Asia

Artist: Khmer
Title: God Shiva
Place: Vietnam (Object found in:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1201–1300
Medium: Bronze
Dimensions: 65.8 × 21.3 × 20.3 cm (25 7/8 × 8 3/8 × 8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Marilynn B. Alsdorf
Reference Number: 1998.752
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/149799/manifest.json

Malleret, Louis, “Protohistoire et Cochinchine khmère”, Bulletin de la Société des Etudes Indochinoises, n.s. tome 17, no. 3 (1942), 22, cat. 40, pl. II.
Malleret, Louis, Pour comprendre la sculpture buddhique et brahmanique en Indochine (Saigon: Albert Portail, 1942), 89–90, pl. XXX, no. 3.
Malleret, Louis, “Cochinchine, Terre Inconnue”, Bulletin de la Société des Etudes Indochinoises, n.s. tome 18, no. 3 (1943), 19, pl. VI.
Malleret, Louis, L’Archéologie du Delta du Mékong, Tome 4 : Le Cisbassac (Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient, 1963), 43–44, no. 199, pls. 16–18.
Spink & Son, Octagon, vol. 14, no. 4, (London, Winter 1977), 14.
Little, Stephen, “Southeast Asian Sculptures from the James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection”, Orientations, vol. 28, no. 7 (July/August 1997), 59, fig. 6.
Pal, Pratapaditya with contributions by Stephen Little, A Collecting Odyssey: Indian, Himalayan, and Southeast Asian Art from the James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago in association with Thames and Hudson, 1997), 101 (ill.), 216–218, 339, cat. 297.
“Art of Asia Acquired by North American Museums, 1997–8”, Archives of Asian Art, vol. 51 (1998/1999), 106, fig. 2.
Wood, James & Mancoff, Debra, Treasures from the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 2000), 61 (image only).
The Art Institute of Chicago, The Essential Guide (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 4th ed., 2013), 121.

Art Institute of Chicago, A Collecting Odyssey: Indian, Himalayan, and Southeast Asian Art from the James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection, Aug. 2–Oct. 26, 1997, cat. 297.

With Spink & Son, London, by 1977 [Spink & Son 1977]; sold to James W. Alsdorf (1913–1990) and Marilynn B. Alsdorf (1925–2019), Winnetka, IL, August 3, 1981; by descent to Marilynn B. Alsdorf, Chicago, IL, 1990; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, Dec. 30, 1998.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.