Lot 124

Cambodian Sandstone Skanda on Peacock - Khmer-Style War God

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Lot 124
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Cambodian Sandstone Skanda on Peacock - Khmer-Style War God
Cambodian Sandstone Skanda on Peacock - Khmer-Style War God
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Cambodian Sandstone Skanda on Peacock - Khmer-Style War God

Estimate: $3,000 - $4,500

Starting Bid: $1,500

(0 Bids)
by Artemis Fine Arts
August 6, 2026 9:00 AM MDT
Live Auction
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

Southeast Asia, Cambodia, Khmer style, ca. 1980–2000 CE. A war god rides his peacock into perfect stillness, the great bird drawn up on splayed talons, its tail rising behind him in a broad carved fan stippled with the hundred eyes of its plumage. Skanda sits astride the mount with the ease of a commander, bare to the waist, a tall tiered crown banded with ornament above a serene and faintly smiling face, the whole worked in sandstone after the grave manner of early Cambodian statuary. The peacock is rendered with patient delight, neck and breast sheathed in overlapping scales, a crested finial sprung from its brow, the body engraved feather by feather across flank and tail. A rounded object, perhaps fruit or offering, rests cradled at his lap, an emblem of the abundance that follows victory. Size: 30" W x 16.4" H x 42.5" D (76.2 cm W x 41.7 cm H x 108.0 cm D).

Skanda, son of Shiva and known across the Hindu world as Kartikeya, Murugan, and Subrahmanya, is the god of war and the appointed general of the heavenly armies, born for the single purpose of destroying the demon Taraka whom no elder god could overcome. His mount is the peacock Paravani, and in that pairing the iconography folds martial ferocity into beauty, the killer of serpents made the throne of the killer of demons. To the Khmer who first gave this subject monumental form, Skanda astride his peacock was both a god of battle and, likely, a mirror held to royalty, the warrior-deity standing in for the warrior-king.

This is a contemporary devotional sculpture carved in the venerable Cambodian idiom by a hand schooled in the canon of the temple gods. It asks to be read as homage, the old war god and his shining mount carried forward in fresh stone, the serene authority of the ancient pattern newly cut.

Provenance: private Studio City, California, USA collection

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Item # 194936

  • Condition: Some light surface wear, but, otherwise, intact and excellent with impressive detail.

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $299 $25
$300 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $20,000