Koh Ker
Hierarchy classification:
Anotations
Scope note:
Refers to the early Angkor style that developed during the second quarter of the tenth century following the rise of the Bakheng style. In sculpture, the style reflects similarities to the Bakheng style in the handling of garments, hairstyles, and jewelry and in the predominance of frontality and linear abstraction of features. Sculptural productions in this style, unlike in other early Angkor styles, feature earrings and amulets and figures depicted in dynamic, action-filled poses with legs and arms extended. In decorative arts, the style is distinguished by the munificent foliate motifs that surround figures of deities and attendants in the tympana above the lintels. Guardian figures inhabit niches in temple doorways and exude an aura of inflexible formality in their postures and facial expressions.