Collection Highlights: Southeast Asian Art

15th century
Later Le dynasty
Porcelain with clear, slightly grayish glaze; metal rim
H: 5.3 W: 10.4 cm
Hanoi or Red River Delta kilns, Vietnam
Purchase F1929.82

Similar translucent bowls, bearing molded designs of dragons or phoenixes (both imperial emblems), have been excavated from the fifteenth-century layer of the Ba Dinh site in central Hanoi.

15th century
Later Le dynasty
Stoneware with cobalt pigment under transparent glaze; iron-oxide wash on base
H: 37.0 W: 23.5 D: 23.5 cm
Vietnam
Purchase -- Friends of Asian Arts and Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program F1992.12

This tall, slender jar with cobalt decoration of lionlike mythical creatures, peony scrolls, and lotus-petal panels was made at a kiln in the Red River delta of northern Vietnam. Its place of manufacture is confirmed by recent research that has identified the locations of several pottery centers in the delta. The ceramic products of those kilns, made with the fine white local clay, were traded to markets ranging from Japan to West Asia in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; this jar was recovered in Indonesia.

Late 12th-13th century
Angkor period
Stoneware with iron pigment under wood-ash glaze
W: 9.7 cm
Cambodia or Northeast Thailand
Gift of Victor and Takako Hauge S1997.133a-b

10th century
Angkor period
Sandstone
H: 124.2 W: 37.5 D: 24.3 cm
Koh Ker, Cambodia
Gift of Arthur M. Sackler S1987.909

This hierarchic majestic figure wears a precisely pleated skirt whose downturned upper edge creates a prominent fold over the belt with dangling tassels visible below. This convention is typcial of the tenth-century Angkor style. Three incised lines below her breast and along her neck express the ideal of ample beauty. While she lacks identifying attributes, the cylindrical shape of her hairstyle and the jeweled diadem on her forehead indicate that she is a goddess. The absence of a Buddha in her headdress suggests she is a Hindu deity, most likely Uma, consort of the god Shiva.

12th–13th century
Angkor period
Stoneware with iron glaze
H: 40.5 W: 17.4 D: 30.5 cm
Cambodia or Northeast Thailand
Gift of Victor and Takako Hauge S1997.132

This jar was made more than eight hundred years ago, during the era when Angkor was at the height of its political and cultural power. The jar's ornamentation echoes the raised and chased designs favored on jars of gold, silver, or bronze in the metalworking traditions of both India and Cambodia. A thick collar of ornament at the shoulder and a wide, heavy rim emphasize the neck's slenderness.