Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Vishnu
Not on view
This is the earliest known Vishnu figure from southern Cambodia. It is sculpted in the round but retains a backplate for the lower half, giving the appearance of high relief. The lower left hand holds a conch shell, Vishnu’s war trumpet, against the hip. This early feature links the icon to Indian prototypes identified first in Kushana-era northern India and later in Andhra Pradesh in the south, one likely source for Southeast Asian sculptors. This sculpture is a reminder that the greater Mekong region was a second epicenter of early Vishnu production, along with peninsular Thailand.
cat. no. 57
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