Dated Buddha Images of Northern Siam, by A.B. Griswold

From the introduction:
Some of Phe Buddha images of northern Siam are powerfully majestic, some are serenely gentle, a great many have a very friendly look. If in the last analysis they cannot match the ethereal
masterpieces of Sukhodaya for sheer inspiration, they are much easier te appreciate at first acquaintance. They are less sublimated, they are closer to our everyday experience, they are more personal.
I do not mean that they are "realistic." in the western sense. Realism would be contrary to every ideal of Buddhist art. Realism could not possibly evoke a proper recollection of the great Indian
Sage who long ago passed into Total Extinction. A Buddha image is never intended to look like a, human being. It always has certain pecularities, such as a rounded protuberance on top of the skull,
called "ushnisha", elongated earlobes, and so on, which set it apart from merely human portraits. To the philosopher it expresses an idea, it is a "Reminder of the Doctrine"; to the simple, it is a super·natural protector.
But the northern sculptors were not quite so ready as their predecessors at Sûkhodaya to put realism away, not so resolut in altering human forms to make them comply with the "supernatural anatomy" that the holy texts ascribed to tho Bhuddha. From a technical point of view the northern images are as good as any bronzes ever made in Southeast Asia.
Their quantity is enormous. They crowd the monasteries of the north; plenty of good examples can be seen in Bangkok-in the National Museum, in different monasteries, and in private collections; a few have even found their way to the museums of Europe and America. (...)