Хмерское искуство / Khmer Art

The author of this historic study was obviously a specialist in architecture and sculpture (the 2^d part of the essay is entirely devoted to Khmer sculpture in situ), and he opened his articles with a luminous quote from the great Russian writer Gogol: ​‘Архитектура — тоже летопись мира. Oна говоритъ тогда, когда уже молчатъ пеcни и nредания, и когда уже ничто не говоритъ о nогибшем народ.’ (​‘Architecture is also the chronicle of the world. She speaks out when songs and legends have long kept silent, and when nothing tells us of vanished nations anymore.’)

It is important to note that the two articles were the main features of the recently launched Bulletin of Fine Arts (Vestnik Iznyashnikh Iskutsv), publication of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, and that they were published four years before Tsarevich Nikolai’s visit to the Kingdom of Siam (1890−1891), which awakened the attention of the Russian public to Southeast Asia. They also predate the actual travel books by Grigory de Vollan and Prince Konstantin Viazemsky across the region. 

The impact of the 1878 Paris Exposition Universelle on the author is palpable: that was the first time the European intellectual and artistic elites had a almost direct access to Far Eastern cultures, in particular the Ancient Khmer civilization. The author remarks: ​“Just as the Russian researchers presented the educated world with the art of Tamerlan’s heritage, so the French presented Europe, at the 1878 Parisian World Exhibition, with samples of the art of Indo-China.” The St. Petersburg Vestnik had a correspondent in Paris, a ​‘M. Vachon’ (1).

Naturally, the French Orientalists and archaelogists are the main sources of the study, in particular Abel Rémusat (who had recently discovered Zhu Dagan’s written account of his visit to Angkor), Henri Mouhot and Louis Delaporte. Doudart de Lagrée Mission d’exploration du Mékong is also referred to.

Also of note is the attention devoted to less famous temples, such as Prasat Preah Thkol (Preah Kanh of Kompong Svay). And in closing, the author convincingly expresses his wish that ​‘созданіямъ хмерскихъ артистовъ было о‑ведено надлежащее мѣсто въ исторіи художествъ’ (‘their right place in the History of Art be assigned to Khmer artists’).