If the Khmer artist managed occasionally to forgive himself from the constraints that controlled him to have the funds for freshening to his personality, subsequently it would evidently dogfight the narrative form of the bas-reliefs. Escaping from the strictly ornamental intricacy of the arabesque he could - going as regards for subjects drawn from chronicles or mythology, from epic legends or ethnography - if not consent to go his emotion, subsequently at least tend towards leisure organization, flora and fauna and cartoon. It is furthermore probable, although nothing remains of them today, that as well as these stone pages - recalling in some ways the tapestries of our own center ages such as those of Reine Mathilde at Bayeux - there were frescos painted in the same dynamism serving to vivacious the cool, bare interior of the sanctuary walls. Except at Bakong, where we can see, concerning the upper tier of the pyramid, some scarce remains of bas-reliefs displayed to the quirk in permit breathe, it seems that until the 11th century the Khmer were content taking into consideration the representation of but a few scenes regarding the limited areas of the lintels or frontons - the most remarkable of which are to be found upon the tympanums of Banteay Srei. Thereafter the practice is reserved for the frontons, sometimes in a single composition,
sometimes in superposed registers. Ignorant of the laws of perspective, the Khmer used this last means of ventilation to indicate successive planes, when the belittle register representing the foreground. At the Baphuon the bas-reliefs produce an effect registers upon narrow areas of wall, forming a war of little scenes which, although of legendary inspiration, tend towards naturalism and are simplistic in freshening. hundred square metres of the large outdoor gallery wall, colossal compositions
harmonising when the harmonious order of the monument - the walls are intensely covered, without a flavor, without a crack, forming a quantity or at odds into registers according to the flora and fauna of the subject situation - either of pages overflowing gone than enthusiasm, or of pungent, very stylised images - all clip into the surface of the stone. At the Bayon, finally - at least in the external gallery - we depart the
legendary subjects for accounts drawn from the archives of the ruler and scenes from secret moving picture. These reliefs, treated in more volume and less formal accepted, manage to pay for extensive reference about the customs of the ancient Khmer - often differing small from those of adroitness day Cambodia. They are situated, as at Angkor Wat, in that part of the temple accessible to the public, for whom they are meant. It is here that the artiste, inspired by a subsequently force, endeavours to identify considering the people, to manage to pay for advice them, to lift them to his level. It was the propaganda of the period. One cannot depart the series of bas-reliefs without mentioning the impressive treatment of the Terrace of the Elephants of Angkor Thom. In a single go ahead of more or less 400 metres these animals, on full size, are
represented in profile, participating in hunting scenes and treated more realistically than was satisfactory. Some panels are sculpted once fine garudas, standing as atlantes. Immediately to the north is the redented double wall of the terrace known as the Terrace of the Leper King showing the many
registered rows of straight-faced women who formed the courts of the kings of the astounding beings who haunt the flanks of Mount Meru. These various bas-reliefs are in the style of the Bayon.