Museum Watch: Angkor, The Rise of a Myth
Born in France during 1842, Louis Delaporte become a sailor, as he longed to travel “and fill my life with surprises and emotions that will make memories for later on.” Indeed, he had his share. At the age of 24, the young ensign was chosen to accompany an expedition because of his drawing skills. When he first set eyes on the site of Angkor, in Cambodia, which was then under French colonial rule, his life took a new direction.
Angkor, the centre of the Khmer kingdom for several centuries, is one of the most important archaeological sites in all of South-East Asia. Angkor Archaeological Park in northern Cambodia covers an area of some 400 square kilometres and contains the magnificent remains of the different capitals of the Khmer Empire, dating from the 9th to the 15th Century. Inside the boundaries of the UNESCO World Heritage site, you’ll find the famous Temples of Angkor Wat, Phnom Bok, Preah Khan and Bayon, with their untold number of sculptures and bas-relief ornamentations, plus some still-inhabited villages.
Delaporte’s sketches proved crucial to the success of the publication of the book which detailed that first expedition into the ancient land. His work earned him a promotion and, later, the Légion d’Honneur for services to his country. Following a later expedition in 1873-1874, he returned to Cambodia in an intrepid endeavour to bring Khmer art to France. Delaporte gathered fragments and made delicate intricate plaster mouldings of the bas-reliefs, noting that “the sculptures of ornamentation demonstrate a pure and sober taste”. Amazingly, following his return to Paris, this extraordinary cargo was rejected by the Louvre, and the ‘Delaporte crates’ bounced from door-to-door, eventually finding a home at the Musée Compiègne. Delaporte’s third and last expedition in 1881 was cut short by ill health, and he’d never again return to Cambodia.
The monumental scale and the delicate nature of the material that Delaporte gathered on these expeditions made storage and conservation precariously fragile, and thus put them in danger of being lost to the world. Enter the Musée Guimet – after painstaking restoration, Delaporte’s plaster mouldings and objects are now seeing the light for the first time since 1927. The Angkor exhibition offers the chance to explore the mythical temples of Cambodia and discover Khmer art through the 250 pieces of sculpture, bas-reliefs, photography, paintings, and sketches are on display.
Practical Information:
October 16, 2013 – January 13, 2014; Open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Musée National des Arts Asiatiques Guimet
6, place d’Iena, Paris 16th
Originally published in the August-September 2013 issue of France Today
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