In 2005 the National Museum of Cambodia opened its metal conservation laboratory after having received training and support from experts at the Freer and Sackler galleries of the Smithsonian Institution and the Getty Conservation Institute. That laboratory was the first of its kind to be built in Cambodia after the devastation of the preceding decades and has trained a generation of specialists in the treatment and preservation of ancient metalwork. For the past five years the conservation laboratory has been fulfilling its mission of maintaining the cultural legacy of the Cambodian people, and this exhibition originated as a way to both commemorate and celebrate the longstanding collaborations that have contributed to the project’s success.

Gods of Angkor: Bronzes from the National Museum of Cambodia was co-curated by Louise Allison Cort and Paul Jett with the input and approval of Hab Touch, who was director of the National Museum of Cambodia at the time the exhibition was organized. The thirty-six (mostly) bronze objects that constitute the show were initially selected by Jett, head of the Department of Conservation and Scientific research at the Freer/Sackler, who was directly involved with the initial establishment of the conservation lab in Phnom Penh. His intimate familiarity with the holdings of the Cambodian National Museum is displayed in the remarkable diversity and quality of the objects selected for inclusion in the show. The result is an eclectic sampling that highlights some of the finest examples of Cambodian metalwork and offers museum visitors a rare opportunity to encounter an important aspect of Khmer art that has often been overlooked in favor of the much more well-known tradition of sculpture in stone.

In many ways, however, the objects reflect a conservator’s eye rather than that of a traditional curator and defy simple thematic organization apart from their shared qualities of geography and media. The artworks range in date from the fourth century BCE to the fourteenth century CE, but most fall into two heavily represented categories. Specifically, several pieces are representative of pre-Angkorian metal casting and date predominantly to the seventh century CE, whereas the largest portion of the exhibition dates from the Angkorian period, roughly tenth–fourteenth centuries CE.

Notable among these objects is a grouping of seven small images that were among the first works of art to be treated in the new conservation lab in Phnom Penh (subsequent analysis of the images dated them to the sixth or seventh century CE). This cache of Buddhist images was unearthed in Kampong Cham Province in 2006 by a woman who was digging a hole to plant a tree. In many ways, this group of objects serves as a sidebar to the broad chronological arrangement that organizes the rest of the show. Collectively, they break open the geographic boundaries of the exhibition, placing the ancient Khmer empire in a wider regional system of trade and cultural contact. Of these objects, three show distinct stylistic connections to the Dvaravati kingdoms, centered in what is today Northern Thailand, and two appear to be import images from China. The discovery of these figures in a single hoard hints at the cosmopolitan nature of the Khmer world during those centuries and reveals how ancient Cambodia’s central role in trans-regional trade introduced both competing ideas and new stylistic forms. Perhaps the most curious testament to this point is the Cambodian image of Maitreya made of brass rather than bronze. Although the exhibition does not foreground the analysis, Jett’s contribution to the catalogue reveals that the metal used to cast this figure was most likely made from melting down imported images (82). This revelation underscores the processes of selection and re-appropriation that are characteristic of many Khmer works and effectively reinforces the dynamic and complex nature of the world in which the objects in this exhibition were made.

The show has no shortage of spectacular images including a beautiful, tenth-century, eight-armed figure of Maitreya and a meticulously detailed Vishnu-Narayana from the late eleventh century. But some of the grandest as well as some of the most unusual objects in the show date from the reign of King Jayavarman VII (late twelfth–early thirteenth century). The exhibition includes a wonderful example of the classic triad of the Buddha seated on the serpent Muchalinda and flanked by the figures of Lokeshvara and Prajnaparamita. The grouping of these three figures has long been recognized as an innovation that was a characteristic hallmark of Jayavarman VII’s rule, but the exhibition also presents works from his reign that are far less familiar to the general public.

For example, ornate ritual objects including a decorated rice spoon, a lustration vessel shaped as a conch shell, and a lamp-stand in the form of a curving lotus help one envision the incredible splendor associated with Angkor’s court rituals and royal expressions of religious devotion. The show is also notable for its inclusion of Tantric objects, such as a small shrine depicting the dancing figure of Hevajra. The image of this Tantric deity, often accompanied by his dakinis, appears prominently on at least two additional works in the collection and points to a lesser-known but important aspect of court religion under Jayavarman VII’s rule.

The opportunity to see these objects up close is sure to be appreciated by those familiar with Cambodian culture, but I suspect that some of their significance will be lost on most visitors, and the wall texts do unfortunately little to rectify this problem. The signage in the exhibition provides very little engagement with questions of historical or religious context and predominantly focuses on broad overviews of the origins of Khmer bronze casting or issues of style and attribution. Naturally, such decisions are a question of emphasis, and given that the exhibition originated as a celebration of metal conservation, it is understandable that the curators chose to emphasize issues of production and style. Nevertheless, it seems like a missed opportunity to introduce the public to the pivotal figure of Jayavarman VII and the cultural setting in which so many of these objects were created and employed.

Fortunately, the essays in the exhibition catalogue do an admirable job of addressing this lacuna. The contributions by Ian C. Glover, Hiram Woodward, Jett, and John Guy remain remarkably focused on the objects in the exhibition and frequently engage historical questions of cultural setting and religious function while still maintaining the show’s focus on style and technique. Individual essays discuss issues of trade, artistic influence, and the relationship between the kings of Angkor and their religious experts, but also provide additional information on artistic processes, archaeological contexts, and production methods that goes beyond what is mentioned in the show itself. In particular, the detailed discussion of casting techniques is useful for those unfamiliar with some of the technical vocabulary employed in the exhibition.

No show can address every topic, and it is a testament to the importance of these objects that they have the potential to speak to so many points of historical, cultural, and technical interest. Ultimately, the curators have assembled an impressive overview of Khmer metalwork and in so doing provided the chance to become familiar with this often neglected aspect of Cambodia’s artistic history. Visitors have been given the opportunity to view a range of objects that represent ancient Khmer metal casting from its inception to the close of the Angkorian period. But the appeal of the objects themselves is sure to occasionally lure visitors away from the bird’s eye perspective and entice them to explore the numerous minute details and exquisite forms created by the masterful artists of ancient Cambodia.

As a final note, it is worth mentioning that over the past few months the Freer and Sackler galleries have been hosting a series of lectures called “Aspects of Angkor” in which many of the experts and advisors involved with the Gods of Angkor exhibition have been invited to participate. The Smithsonian Institution has generously made streaming videos of most of those presentations available online.