Mirror. Cambodia. Khemer Art. XII-XII centuries.

Mirror. Cambodia. Khemer Art. XII-XII centuries.
In bronze.
Measurements: 34 x 21,5 x 21,5 cm.; 42,5 cm. total height.

Circular mirror belonging to Khmer workshops of the late medieval period. It is bordered with concentric moldings and has floral decoration on the handle, where a boddisatvua is also represented. Khmer mirrors used to have Hindu and Buddhist motifs as an ornamental and symbolic element, since it is believed that they were used in religious rituals, although they were also owned by the aristocracy. Some of these mirrors are in museums such as the Guimet Museum (France) and the National Museum of Cambodia.

The Khmer or Khmer is one of the most important cultures developed in Indochina. At the beginning of the 7th century, the first inscriptions in their language appear in the Indian kingdom of Tshenla, located in the middle course of the Mekong River. The Khmer reorganized politically, and in the 9th century achieved the unity of present-day Cambodia under the reign of Jayavarman II (802-850), founder of the kingdom of Angkor. This monarch had spent his youth in the refined court of the sailendra of Java, so he brought to his country an important influence of the Javanese culture, as well as the courtly protocol of that dynasty. The Khmer art reached its moment of splendor during the period of Angkor, developed between the IX and XIII centuries, and reached very different fields, such as textiles, lacquer, ceramics, goldsmithery, etc.