Sculpture of Shakyamini Buddha; Angkor Borei or... Lot 2

Sculpture of Shakyamini Buddha; Angkor Borei or Prakho chan, 7th-9th century AD. Stone. Size: 63 x 29 x 20 cm. Figure of Shakyamuni Buddha of which the face, one of the arms and the lower limbs are missing. His young, unadorned body wearing a long sarong. Despite the hieratic nature of the piece and its strict frontality, the artist has created a play of volumes that adds a certain dynamism by separating the left arm from the body and holding the cloth of the robe underneath it. Although there are no features that help to fully identify the representation of the figure, the type of robe suggests that it is a representation of Shakyamuni Buddha. This ancient city was an important settlement of the Funan Kingdom and may have been its capital. It may have been the Metropolis of Thinae, or Sinae, located by Claudius Ptolemy as the farthest known city to the east in his Geography. The site was first excavated in 1996 and again in 1999 as part of the Lower Mekong Archaeological Project.