History of The Style
To retain the greatest spiritual potency, Buddha icons in Thai temples had to resemble as closely as possible an original prototype that tradition erroneously believed had been made during the lifetime of the Buddha. Of the three major efforts by Thai kings to establish an "authentic" canon for the icons, the Sukhothai style was the first, followed by the U Thong and the lion types.
The populace of southern Thailand, which captured Sukhothai in approximately 1350, was in the 14th century still largely Mon, and the fusion of styles resulted in the more solid, corporeal, and squared-off U Thong image. Although the resulting changes may be seen most readily in the shape of the head, now more square than oval, and the broader, more sober features, there is also an increased heaviness of the body, no longer weightless but firmly seated on the ground. While the Sukhothai style is characterized by linear emphasis, the U Thong style again shows concern for solidity and modeling. At the same time, the U Thong images are rather stolid and lack the linear excitement and uniquely Thai character of Sukhothai art. U Thong style, like Sukhothai style, is still copied in Thailand.
Read more about this topic: U Thong Style
Famous quotes containing the words history of the, history of, history and/or style:
“This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation, because as a result of what happened in this week, the world is bigger, infinitely.”
—Richard M. Nixon (1913–1995)
“I believe that in the history of art and of thought there has always been at every living moment of culture a “will to renewal.” This is not the prerogative of the last decade only. All history is nothing but a succession of “crises”Mof rupture, repudiation and resistance.... When there is no “crisis,” there is stagnation, petrification and death. All thought, all art is aggressive.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)
“The whole history of civilisation is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)
“A church that can never have done with excommunicating Christ while it exists! Away with your broad and flat churches, and your narrow and tall churches! Take a step forward, and invent a new style of out-houses. Invent a salt that will save you, and defend our nostrils.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)