Image: Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena
The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena will open ‘The Art of Kandy: Sri Lanka’s Last Kingdom (1469–1815)’ on September 4, bringing together 13 objects from its collection of art associated with the Kandyan kingdom. The presentation focuses on the final royal capital of Sri Lanka before the onset of British colonial rule.
The exhibition centers on small-scale, portable works, including intricately carved ivory sculptures and gem-studded silver objects made for elite patrons. Together, the objects offer a focused view of the technical skill and creative ingenuity of artisans working under Kandyan royal sponsorship.
According to the museum, that sponsorship helped Kandyan craftsmen develop a distinctive artistic identity during a period marked by internal strife and pressure from foreign powers. The exhibition’s date range, 1469 to 1815, corresponds to the historical period identified in the presentation’s title and frames the works within the kingdom’s final centuries.
The objects are drawn from the Norton Simon Museum’s holdings rather than identified in the supplied announcement as loans from multiple institutions. Image credits accompanying the museum’s September programming include a 17th- to 18th-century bronze ‘Kandyan Chief,’ a bronze ‘Footed Ring with Birds’ dated broadly from the 15th to the 19th century, and an 18th-century ivory ‘Buddha’ from Kandy with traces of pigment. The announcement does not specify whether every work referenced in the image credits will be included in the exhibition.
The display adds a concentrated presentation of Sri Lankan material to a museum whose September programming also includes tours devoted to South and Southeast Asian art and to female divinities in Indian art. Those programmes are listed separately from the Kandy exhibition and do not form part of its stated 13-object checklist.
‘The Art of Kandy: Sri Lanka’s Last Kingdom’ opens September 4 at the Norton Simon Museum, 411 West Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena, California. The supplied exhibition announcement gives no closing date.
