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the journal of the asian arts society

of australia

TAASA ReviewROYAL COLLECTIONS IN ASIA

3 Editorial: ROYAL COLLECTIONS IN ASIA

Melanie Eastburn & Niki van den Heuvel, Guest Editors

4 PUri aGUNG: PrESErViNG KaraNGaSEM’S roYal PalaCE iN Bali

Niki van den Heuvel

7 tHE roYal aNtiQUitiES CollECtioN oF tHE NGUYEN dYNaStY, ViEtNaM

Kerry Nguyen-Long

10 tHE JEWEllEd World oF BUrMESE KiNGS

Charlotte Galloway

12 tHE roYal CollECtioNS iN CirEBoN, iNdoNESia: a liViNG traditioN

Joanna Barrkman

14 tHE QUEEN SiriKit MUSEUM oF tEXtilES, BaNGKoK

Piyanan (Poom) Petcharaburanin

16 tHE SHoSo-iN trEaSUrY – a roYal CollECtioN BotH EXtraordiNarY aNd EVErYdaY

Robyn Maxwell

18 tHE HoFFotoGraaF: Portrait PHotoGraPHEr to roYaltY iN aSia

Gael Newton

22 ModESt CoNNoiSSEUr: iNdoNESiaN tEXtilES iN tHE liVES oF JoHN YU & GEorGE SoUttEr

Siobhan Campbell

26 roYal art iN tHE CollECtioN oF tHE NatioNal GallErY oF aUStralia

Melanie Eastburn

28 BooK rEViEW: PHOTOGRAPHING INDIA’S PRINCES

Jim Masselos

30 rECENt taaSa aCtiVitiES

30 taaSa MEMBErS’ diarY: MARCH - MAY 2014

31 WHat’S oN: MARCH - MAY 2014

Compiled by Tina Burge

C o N t E N t S

Volume 23 No. 1 March 2014

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a FUll iNdEX oF artiClES PUBliSHEd iN TAASA Review SiNCE itS BEGiNNiNGS

iN 1991 iS aVailaBlE oN tHE taaSa WEB SitE, WWW.taaSa.orG.aU

PriNCE YESHWaNt rao HolKar aNd HiS SiStEr MaNoraMa raJE (dEtail) C.1916, GOPINATH

DEVARE (DEVARE & CO.), MUMBAI (BOMBAY), INDIA. GELATIN SILVER PHOTOGRAPH, WATERCOLOUR, ORIGINAL

GILDED FRAME, IMAGE 36.7 X 26.6 CM, NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA, CANBERRA. SEE PP25-6.

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THE ASIAN ARTS SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA INC. Abn 64093697537 • Vol. 23 No.1, March 2014 ISSN 1037.6674 Registered by Australia Post. Publication No. NBQ 4134

editoriAL • email: [email protected]

General editor, Josefa Green PUBliCatioNS CoMMittEE

Josefa Green (convenor) • Tina burge Melanie Eastburn • Sandra Forbes • Charlotte Galloway William Gourlay • Marianne Hulsbosch Jim Masselos • Ann Proctor • Sabrina Snow Christina Sumner

dESiGN/laYoUt

Ingo Voss, VossDesign

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E d i t o r i a l : R O YA L C O L L E C I O N S I N A S I A

Melanie Eastburn & Niki van den Heuvel, Guest Editors

3

t a a S a C o M M i t t E E

When the idea for a special TAASA Review issue devoted to royal collections of Asia was suggested by Gael Newton and Robyn Maxwell the concept was immediately appealing. From the earliest conversations regarding the content of this issue we realized that it was vast with possibilities and enough ideas for several volumes presented themselves. We are pleased that the final result brings to readers a selection including less well-known and sometimes surprising collections, most of which are accessible to the public.

Throughout Asia some of the finest arts have been produced under the patronage of powerful rulers who sought to mark and assert their presence through the construction of palatial and secular architecture and the commissioning of lavish ceremonial and courtly goods. Imperial dynasties established across expansive mainland and insular regions have resulted in a rich diversity of royal treasures. Although many are now included in international collections, private and public, others remain in situ. While royal holdings in India and Japan are explored in this issue, Southeast Asia is a particular focus, with most articles relating to courts in Thailand, Burma, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Piyanan Petcharaburanin from the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles in Bangkok gives an introduction to the Museum from its inception to its current role as a state of the art institution inspired by the passion of Queen Sirikit. In November 2013 the Museum hosted an exceptional conference, Weaving royal traditions through time, which included diverse sessions spanning textiles for the Thai court and conservation at the Royal Textile Academy of Bhutan to contemporary fashion designed for the royal families of Malaysia and Brunei.

Following a fortuitously timed visit to Japan in 2012, Robyn Maxwell writes about the precious 8th century objects associated with the reign of Emperor Shomu and stored at the Shoso-in repository of Todai-ji temple in Nara. A rotating selection of these works of art is available for viewing for just a few days each year.

Charlotte Galloway looks at treasures from the courts of Burma that have survived a

tumultuous history, some of which are now displayed at the National Museum in Yangon. From descriptions of the gilded opulence of the 16th century to the deposal of the last Burmese king Thibaw in 1885 and the ensuing years of colonization and independence, Charlotte gives insight into the meaning and purpose of these exceptional works of art.

Focusing on the royal antiquities of Vietnam’s Nguyen dynasty, Kerry Nguyen-Long has written a fascinating history of the dynasty’s regalia. Along with a detailed account of some of the most prized seals, crowns and jade objects, Kerry provides an in-depth account of their production in dedicated handicraft units.

Indonesia receives attention from a number of perspectives this issue. Inspired by recent travels, Joanna Barrkman describes a unique display of ceramics as well as wayang kulit puppets in royal collections in Cirebon, alongside investigation into the development of Cirebon batik motifs. Further emphasis on Indonesian textiles is provided by Siobhan Campbell who discusses a forthcoming exhibition of cloths from the collection of John Yu and his late partner George Soutter.

Gael Newton, whose exhibition Garden of the East: photography in Indonesia 1850s–1940s at the National Gallery of Australia coincides with this edition of the TAASA Review, discusses the way in which interest in photography, in particular portrait photography of royalty, spread rapidly from Europe to the courts of Thailand and Indonesia from the mid 19th century. Photography is also explored in Jim Masselos’ review of Pramod Kumar’s sumptuous book Posing for Posterity: Royal Indian Portraits, an investigation into photographs belonging to the royal families of India.

As guest editors we are also happy to have been able to contribute content on collections close to our hearts. Reflecting on time spent working in Bali and Lombok, Niki gives a personal take on the history and holdings of Puri Karangasem where she worked as a curator for a year, while Melanie considers a group of objects associated with royal dynasties in various parts of Asia which are now held by the National Gallery of Australia.

GiLL Green • PRESIDENT

Art historian specialising in Cambodian culture

Ann ProCtor • VICE PRESIDENT

Art historian with a particular interest in Vietnam

todd SundermAn • TREASURER

Former Asian antique dealer, with a particular interest in Tibetan furniture

dy AndreASen • SECRETARY

Has a special interest in Japanese haiku and tanka poetry

HWEi-FE’N CHEaH

Visiting Fellow, School of Cultural Inquiry, Australian National University.

Matt CoX

Assistant Curator, Asian Art, Art Gallery of NSW

CHarlottE GalloWaY

Lecturer Asian Art History and Curatorial Studies, Australian National University, with a special interest in the Buddhist Art of Myanmar

JoSEFa GrEEN

General editor of TAASA Review. Collector of Chinese ceramics

aNN GUild

Former Director of the Embroiders Guild (UK)

MiN-JUNG KiM Curator of Asian Arts & Design at the Powerhouse Museum

YUKiE Sato

Former Vice President of the Oriental Ceramic Society of the Philippines with wide-ranging interest in Asian art and culture

SUSaN SCollaY

Art historian and curator specialising in the arts of Islam and in historic textiles. She is Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of the UK.

CHriStiNa SUMNEr

Former Principal Curator, Design and Society,Powerhouse Museum, Sydney

MarGarEt WHitE

Former President and Advisor of the Friends of Museums, Singapore, with special interest in Southeast Asian art, ceramics and textiles

S t a t E r E P r E S E N t a t i V E S

AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY

MElaNiE EaStBUrN

Curator of Asian Art, National Gallery of Australia

QUEENSLAND

rUSSEll StorEr

Curatorial Manager, Asian and Pacific Art, Queensland Art Gallery

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

JaMES BENNEtt

Curator of Asian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia

VICTORIA

Carol CaiNS

Curator Asian Art, National Gallery of Victoria International

4

rom 2011 to 2012 I spent a year living in Bali and Lombok working as a curator

at the Puri Karangasem Historical Society, an initiative started by members of the Karangasem’s royal family to conserve their cultural heritage through print publications, digital documentation and preservation. My placement was supported by Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development (AYAD) and provided me with a unique insight into one of Bali’s living royal collections.

Prior to the advent of Dutch colonial rule in the Indonesian archipelago, the island of Bali was divided into numerous kingdoms subject, yet not always loyal, to a supreme king, the Dewa Agung of Bali. One of the most powerful of these was the Kingdom of Karangasem which occupied a considerable portion of eastern bali, an area reflected today by the boundaries of its namesake district. At the height of its power Karangasem’s territories also included the island of Lombok and significant portions of northern Bali.

The politics of the Karangasem dynasty were often complex with various factions in eastern Bali and Lombok vying for absolute power throughout its history. Sometimes at odds, these factions nevertheless shared a common ancestry, tracing their descent to Gusti Anglurah (Ngurah) Batan Jeruk, or rather his nephew. The prime minister, or patih, of the Gelgel kingdom, Batun Jeruk fled to the island’s east in the mid 16th century following an unsuccessful rebellion against his ruler Dalem Bekung. According to dynastic genealogies and historical sources, Karangasem was established by Batun Jeruk’s adopted nephew and heir, Gusti Wayan Oka, and his son, Ida I Gusti Nyoman Karang. From these founding ancestors, there issued a complex genealogy of descendants who ruled and expanded the kingdom up until the late 19th century (Vickers n.d).

Numerous palaces and temples erected by Karangasem’s rulers in Bali and Lombok remain intact to this day. Nestled in the town of Amlapura on the coast of Karangasem, Puri Agung was home to the last rajas of the realm. Still lived in and cared for by the dynasty’s descendants, Puri Agung was constructed at the end of the 19th century by Anak Agung Gusti Gedé Jelantik (r. 1893–1908) and subsequently renovated and expanded by his nephew and heir Anak Agung Agung

Anglurah Ketut Karangasem (r. 1908–1950). Following the expansion of the Dutch East Indies into Bali at the turn of the 20th century these two figures reigned as stedehouders, or regents, for the Dutch colonial power.

Protected by ubiquitous Balinese red-brick walls on three sides and a sheer incline to the east, Puri Agung consists of numerous buildings constructed to house the rulers, their family and an extensive household of advisors, minsters, priests, guards and servants. These abodes are surrounded by beautifully landscaped courtyards and

gardens and interspersed with ceremonial pavilions, temples and towering kori agung gateways which house the spirit guardians that welcome and protect residents and guests within the palace.

While many of the residences of Puri Agung are home to the descendants of Anak Agung Agung Anglurah Ketut Karangasem – with his 10 wives the last Raja legitimately sired 16 sons and 19 daughters – his quarters have remained unoccupied since his death in 1966. Entitled Maskerdam by the Raja himself, the building demonstrates his reverence to The

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F

P U r i a G U N G : P r E S E r V i N G K a r a N G a S E M ’ S r o Y a l Pa l a C E i N B a l i

Niki van den Heuvel

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 3 N O . 1

tHE toWEriNG GatEWaYS oF PUri aGUNG ADORNED WITH CARVED GUARDIAN

FIGURES AND MOLDED STUCCO RELIEFS. PHOTO: NIkI VAN DEN HEUVEL

5TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 3 N O . 1

Netherlands in its architecture, a fusion of Dutch-inspired styles with local Balinese and Chinese elements, and through its name which refers to the city of Amsterdam.

Visitors are welcomed by the family to enter the chambers in which the last Raja slept and entertained esteemed guests. A museum of sorts, Maskerdam houses some of the last remaining treasures of the rajas. These include an ornately carved and gilded marble-topped table and chairs given to the Raja by Queen Wilhelmina of The Netherlands (r. 1890–1948) along with a handful of photographs portraying the last rajas of Karangasem in Bali and Lombok.

Maskerdam’s splendid verandah is used today for ceremonies associated with weddings and other important dates on the Balinese ritual calendar. During such occasions the old palace comes alive with colourful ceremonial regalia and offerings made to appease ancestors and spirits. For the most important occasions, a family wedding or the inauguration the head of the family for example, garments and textiles worn by the last Raja and his wives are brought out from safe keeping and worn by his descendants. The attire includes western style jackets in wool and velvet, embellished with gold braid as well as sumptuous songket skirt cloths.

In accordance with the Balinese ritual calendar, the descendants of Karangasem gather every 210 days on the day known as Tumpek Landep. On this day dedicated to steel objects, the heirloom keris bequeathed to the sons, and now grandsons, of the last Raja are presented with offerings and cleansed and purified by a balian, or shamanic priest, who intones the correct mantras for appeasing the ancestral deities contained within each blade. On this day the Raja’s keris, each with their

own name, history and magical properties, are re-united as a group where they are inspected, cleaned and discussed among the male members of the family.

Adjacent to the raja’s former residence are ceremonial pavilions used for the various rituals of ones lifecycle. These include the bale ekalanga in which newly married couples spent their first night and the elevated bale pawedaan used for rites of passage such as tooth filing. The bale pawedaan is also the site at which pedanda or brahmana priests perform the prayers to accompany the rites carried out prior to cremation in and around the neighbouring bale pemandesan.

Each structure demonstrates the fusion of local Balinese architecture with Chinese design elements. While the latter is manifest through brightly painted open work lattices featuring auspicious motifs of swastikas, eight petalled lotuses, mythical lion-like barong

and rabbits, the local style is distinctly visible in the red brick foundations with their stucco bas reliefs, and in the trabeated supports with their ornate makara carvings.

Ornate friezes and panels adorn many of the gateways and buildings of Puri Agung. These reliefs are unique, having been molded from stucco rather than carved in low relief from stone. In varying states of disrepair the dynamic recurring motifs and scenes include the Rajas’ emblem, a regal winged beast or singa, guardian figures and Hindu deities, and epic battle scenes. In an effort to preserve these scenes, members of the Karangasem family have been slowly working to consolidate the Puri’s reliefs using modern materials to recreate the most damaged examples.

A recurring theme in the architectural designs conceived by the last Raja is the water palace or garden. Occupying the centre of Puri Agung is the impressive pavilion known as bale

a PEdaNda SiWa aNd PEdaNda BUddHa CONDUCT ODALAN RITES AT PURI AGUNG. PHOTO: NIkI VAN DEN HEUVEL

a ViEW oF tHE BalE PaWEdaaN aNd BalE PEMaNdESaN FROM PURI AGUNG’S WATER PAVILION. PHOTO: NIkI VAN DEN HEUVEL

ANAk AGUNG GUSTI GEDé JELANTIk AND NEPHEW AND HEIR

ANAk AGUNG AGUNG ANGLURAH kETUT kARANGASEM READ

FROM A LONTAR MANUSCRIPT. COURTESY kITLV COLLECTION

6 TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 3 N O . 1

kambang. Surrounded entirely by water, once sourced from a local spring, the bale kambang is reached via a footbridge from the surrounding courtyard. The impressive floating palace is surrounded by sculptural fountains in the form of mythical winged beasts and serpents. Used as a space to entertain important guests the bale kambang once housed the family’s heirloom gamelan, now in the Nyoman Gunarsa Museum in Klungkung, a replica of which was given to the Dutch and is now held in Amsterdam’s Tropenmuseum.

Three additional water palaces were constructed by the last Raja in the early 20th century. Of these only two remain, Tirtagangga and the extensively renovated Taman Ujung. Designed by the Raja himself and also fed by a natural spring, the pools of Tirtagangga were constructed from 1948 as a place of recreation for his family and people. Hampered by the eruptions of Gunung Agung in 1963 and lack of funds, the completion of the project was achieved only after the last Rajas’ death, due in great part to the efforts of his son Dr Anak

Agung Made Djelantik (1919–2007) and his children. Completed in 1921 and used by the last Raja to entertain his wives and guests, the water palace and terraces of Taman Ujung also sustained extensive damage from Gunung Agung’s eruptions and the 1976 earthquake. These have since undergone extensive restoration and like Tirtagangga are open to visitors.

The splendor of the Karangasem court is encapsulated in beautiful photographs that document the households of the rajas, their palaces, and important occasions including visits by Dutch officials. Many of these images survive in international collections including the Tropenmuseum and the National Gallery of Australia. In a particularly touching image a young Anak Agung Agung Anglurah Ketut Karangasem kneels beside his uncle Anak Agung Gusti Gedé Jelantik, and reads from a lontar (palm leaf) manuscript.

While never formally educated, the last Raja had a great passion for the study of Balinese

religion, philosophy, literature and poetry. Included among the rajas’ collection were numerous lontar manuscript dating from the early to late 19th century. Today these are kept by the last Raja’s only surviving son, Professor A. A. Gedé Putra Agung, formerly the Head of Research in Culture and Tourism at Udayana University and presently the head of the Karangasem royal family. Also in the Professor’s collection are important historical documents including genealogical charts, awards and honours bestowed upon both rajas, along with correspondence between the house of Karangasem and the offices of Her Majesty Queen Wilhelmina.

Today, care of the Puri, both physical and spiritual, falls to the last Raja’s descendants with many still living within Puri Agung or travelling between their new homes and Amlapura. Along with the daily offerings required to appease the gods and ancestors numerous ceremonies are held throughout the year in accordance with the Balinese ritual calendar including galungan – during which time the deified ancestors of living Hindus return to their original abodes and must be housed and entertained – and odalan ceremonies which are dictated by the cycle of the moon and honour the dedication of the family’s numerous temples.

During the odalan for Puri Agung’s ancestral temple, anniversary worshippers gather in the family temple which houses the shrines of the dynasty’s forebears and deities. At such times one may catch a glimpse of the female descendants of Karangasem performing Balinese dance or a pedanda Siwa and pedanda Buddha conducting the odalan ceremony as the family perform appropriate prayers and offerings.

The Karangasem palace architecture, gardens, buildings, ceremonial regalia and documents shared among the rajas’ descendants have an important place in Balinese history and art history. Just as important is the intangible heritage of ceremony and custom passed down through generations and still practiced today. It is hoped that with continued dedication and care by their descendants, the legacies and collections of Anak Agung Gusti Gedé Jelantik and Anak Agung Agung Anglurah Ketut Karangasem will continue to remain for future generations.

Niki van den Heuvel is an Assistant Curator of Asian

art at the National Gallery of Australia

rEFErENCESVickers, A., n.d. A history of the Karangasem dynasty, unpublished.

dESCENdaNtS oF aNaK aGUNG aGUNG aNGlUraH KEtUt KaraNGaSEM GATHER AT PURI AGUNG

FOR TUkANG LANDEP TO BLESS THE kERIS BEQUEATHED TO HIS SONS. PHOTO: NIkI VAN DEN HEUVEL


n the afternoon of 30 August 1945 a crowd gathered in front of the Ngo

Mon Gate entrance to the Imperial City in Hue. They were there to hear King Bao Dai (r.1925-1945) read the abdication edict. The king wore his imperial robes, golden turban and beaded footwear. Standing at the head of the steps on the Five-Phoenix Pavilion, and aided by a microphone, he read the edict, his voice resonating with emotion. Against the background of a 21-gun salute the royal standard slowly descended the flagpole and the yellow star with red background was raised. Bao Dai formally presented the deputy chairman of the National Liberation Committee, bespectacled Tran Huy Lieu, with the royal regalia, a 7.8 kg gold seal and a royal sword sheathed in jade inlay. Tran Huy Lieu then raised the heavy seal high so that the crowd might see it (Marr: 1995).

Following his abdication, monarch-turned-citizen Nguyen Phuc Vinh Thuy vacated the palace and, except for his personal effects and those of the queen and queen mother, all property reverted to the state. The property inherited by the new administration, now known as the royal antiquities collection of the Nguyen Dynasty, included objects of ritual significance: royal seals, crowns, ceremonial swords, ceremonial dishes, censers and gold books with silver covers. There are items of jewellery, tea-sets, writing sets and ornaments made from gold, silver and silver-gilt embellished with jade, ivory, pearls and faceted gemstones.

All were transferred to Hanoi. However, the seal and sword handed over by Bao Dai at his abdication was lost and there are several differing reports on what happened. It seems initially they were despatched north and secured, but as the resistance war began they were hidden in a pagoda, and in the ensuing fighting uncovered by French forces who handed them over to the ex-king. At some considerably later date the sword passed into the possession of his son Nguyen Phuc Bao Long. It is understood the seal, Hoang de chi bao, cast in 1823, is currently in the possession of Mme Monique Baudot who married the ex-king in 1972. In December 1959 the remainder of the treasure was transferred from the Ministry of Finance to the National Museum of Vietnamese History in Hanoi. In 1961 an

exhibition of selected objects was mounted for public viewing. Unfortunately, the seal Hoang hau chi bao, one of a pair issued to Queen Nam Phuong (1914-1963), was stolen. Thereafter the collection was secured in storage under a special arrangement. In 2007 the Ministry of Culture and Information allocated a fund to facilitate storage of the treasure and under this new arrangement the museum became the repository of a significant number of the seals. Eighty-five seals from the collection were published for the first time in a book commemorating the 1000 year anniversary of the founding of Thang Long (Hanoi) in October 2010 (Nguyen Dinh Chien, Pham Quoc Quan, Nguyen Cong Viet: 2009).

All the seals, with the exception of four, date to the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945). These are significant seals of the dynasty’s kings and crown princes as well as posthumous seals, and others in the category of queen, king’s mother and adoptive mother. The king’s seals are symbols of his supreme authority and thus represent the authority of the dynasty. All are recorded in the official historical records. The survival of the actual seals enhances this sigillography, with its detailed history, age, distinction of types, manner of use, and legal

function of each (see Kerry Nguyen-Long & Nguyen Dinh Chien: 2010).

In 1802 the first king of the nguyen Dynasty, Nguyen Phuc Anh ascended the throne under the reign name Gia Long (r.1802-1819) and held court in Phu Xuan (Hue). The country, unified after 30 years of vicious civil war, extended from the Chinese border in the north to the Gulf of Siam in the south. The new king was faced with the daunting task of building a nation from the rubble and founded the dynasty on a firm Confucian foundation. He implemented a new administration, creating an executive system with six ministries, and established the Imperial Academy, constructed a Temple of Literature in the new capital and held examinations to choose the most talented scholars to serve in his administration. Law and order, the taxation system, infrastructure and industrial works, all in neglect and disrepair after years of warfare, received urgent attention. By the time of his death Hue was secure as the centre of an organized administration system of the unified country.

There are 13 seals from the reign of Gia Long, and 14 from his successor Minh Menh

O

t H E r o Y a l a N t i Q U i t i E S C o l l E C t i o N o F t H E N G U Y E N d Y N a S t Y, V i E t N a M

Kerry Nguyen-Long SEal, HoAng de Ton THAn cHi bAo, R. OF MINH MENH, 1828. GOLD, 8.7kG. ROYAL ANTIQUITIES

COLLECTION OF THE NGUYEN DYNASTY, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF VIETNAMESE HISTORY, HANOI


(1820-1840). In 1803 the Ty thuong bao was established. This department had custody of the royal seals. Gia Long issued a decree that seals of national significance be cast in gold. In comparison to seals in later reigns, the seals which date to his reign bear fewer side notations. Royal decrees stipulated all the regulations to be followed in the casting and engraving of a royal seal. Ceremony surrounded every step in the process. The design of the head of the seal was selected with due concern for protocol and iconographic significance. Minh Menh went on to produce a system of seals for the dynasty. He established the rules for their casting and use, in line with administrative reforms and with the aim of creating uniformity throughout the kingdom.

An heirloom seal of the realm is particularly important as it signifies the legitimacy of the king and continuity of the dynastic line. The seal Dai Nam thu thien vinh menh truyen quoc ty (Heirloom Seal of Dai Nam with Enduring Mandate from Heaven) is made of white jade presented to King Thieu Tri (r.1841-1847) in 1846. Documentation shows it came from Jade Mountain, Hoa Dien District, in Quang

Nam province. Two of the heaviest seals in the collection are from the reign of Minh Menh. Sac menh chi bao, cast on an auspicious day in the 10th month in the 8th year of his reign in pure gold, weighs 223.6 taels (approximately 8.3 kg). On the same day the seal Hoang de ton than chi bao was also cast in gold. It weighs 234.43 taels, approximately 8.7 kg and is the largest and heaviest seal in the collection.

These treasures in the antiquities collection were made in the dynastic handicrafts units. This was a system of craft workshops in place since the time of the Nguyen lords, and which followed the system put in place during the Le so period (1428-1527). Under the Nguyen dynasty the system was strengthened. With the country unified, the kings were able to avail themselves of the most talented craftsmen in the land. King Minh Menh set up the Gold and Silversmith Unit, a multi-layered system with master craftsmen in permanent service to the king supported by teams of craftsmen. Depending on demand, the craftsmen rendered their services in the workshops in the first half of each year, after which they were free to return to their village.

There were also private units working with an elected leader who submitted an application to the head of the province for a licence. The leader was the mediator for dealings between the unit and the Court, and the craftsmen provided services on a contractual basis. The administration of the units was the responsibility of the Ministry of Public Works while work programming was coordinated with the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of War. The Armoury operated under this administrative umbrella and was responsible for the casting of the gold and silver royal seals. The crowns in the collection had badly deteriorated during storage. In 2008 gold jeweller and historian Vu Kim Loc was assigned the task of researching and restoring four to their original state. The crown, mu thuong trieu, weighing 660 g is representative of its type. The black fabric covering the armature is a perfect foil for the gold and jewelled assemblage and delicate filigree wire-work panels support dragons interspersed with jewelled sunbursts and edged with bands of pearls. The ritual sword, An dan bao kiem, weighing 580 g, is heavily embossed and jewel-encrusted. The treasure also includes several gold ritual boxes, among them one weighing 2.15 kg encrusted with jade and coral. Its openwork cover features jade inserts engraved with different motifs.

The regal Nguyen dragon, preserve of royal authority, is a confrontational creature with large, fleshy head and elongated proboscis, with a great swirling flourish to its tail, very different to the elegant, fluid undulating dragon of previous dynasties. These characteristics are seen on what appears to be a unique figurine of a three-dimensional dragon, the body reared up and amongst clouds. It is dated to the second year of the reign of Thieu Tri (1842). There are numbers of dishes all of similar shape but which vary considerably in their style of decoration. They range from an undated dish, possibly one of the earliest, with the central design featuring an elegant chased design of dragon amongst clouds set against a background of fine matting, to an extravagantly embellished jade dish with an attached gold flange adorned with gemstones. Yet another, from the reign of Duy Tan (1907–1916), features a design in high relief. All were made for ritual use. The collection’s several large censers and sets of altar vases are profusely decorated in high relief and with great detail.

The Nguyen kings issued gold, silver and bronze books. The illustrations on their several pages are beautiful in their execution,

CroWN, Mu THuong TRieu, GOLD, FACETED GEMSTONES, PEARLS, CLOTH, 600GR. ROYAL ANTIQUITIES

COLLECTION OF THE NGUYEN DYNASTY, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF VIETNAMESE HISTORY, HANOI


with chasing the favoured technique worked against a background of fine matting. A precious gold book is accompanied by its own silver box with the cover of the box echoing the design on the cover of the book.

Jade objects show superb craftsmanship and were made in considerable numbers by Nguyen craftsmen prior to the disbandment of the handicrafts units. They include ritual objects, some in archaic forms, tea-sets overlaid with gold, vases, spittoons, items for the scholar’s table and ornaments. There are vessels with thin, translucent walls, others carved in high relief and some artistic renditions on which the skin of the jade is retained. With the closure of the handicrafts units, working in jade and ivory was almost completely abandoned by 1897 (Brocheux and Hemery: 2009). The fourth king, Tu Duc (r.1847-1883), scholarly and steeped in Confucianism, was ill-equipped to resist the encroaching west and when French forces landed on Vietnamese soil he was unable to respond either militarily or diplomatically. He bears the ignominy of being the signatory to the Treaty of Saigon (known as the unequal treaty) signed in 1862 which delivered the country into French hands.

To meet French demands for ‘reparation’ as stipulated in the treaty, the King ordered gold in the kingdom be paid into the Treasury. Under tremendous stress he also ordered the disbandment of the official handicrafts units. As a consequence large numbers of elite artisans exited from Hue and returned to their villages. Others remained but worked under different arrangements.

By the time his successor King Dong Khanh (r.1885-1889) mounted the throne the emasculation of the Court was complete and subsequent kings were regarded as compliant puppets of the French. Texts on seals from the reigns of Dong Khanh and Khai Dinh (r.1916-1925) bear witness to French administrative presence (Kerry Nguyen-Long & Nguyen Dinh Chien: 2010). Eight more kings would mount the throne and ritual objects would continue to be made under the new arrangement. King Bao Dai’s abdication marked the end of the Nguyen Dynasty, the monarchical system, its rituals and its associated paraphernalia. The royal antiquities collection is especially valuable for its reliable provenance and remarkable for its survival compared with the heavy loss of objects made by elite craftsmen

in the handicrafts units of previous dynasties. Given the often tumultuous and difficult events of the last two centuries it is both extraordinary and serendipitous that this collection has survived.

kerry Nguyen-Long is a contributing editor of Arts

of Asia and author of Arts of Viet Nam: 1009-1945

published in Hanoi by The Gioi Publishers in 2013.

rEFErENCESBrocheux, P. and Hemery, D. 2009. Indochina: An Ambiguous

Colonization, 1858-1954. University of California Press, Berkeley.

(trans. Ly Lan Dill-klien et.al.)

Marr, David G. 1995: Vietnam 1945. The Quest for Power.

University of California Press, Berkeley.

Nguyen-Long, k. & Nguyen Dinh Chien 2010. ‘The Nguyen

Dynasty Royal Seals Collection in the National Museum of

Vietnamese History’ in Arts of Asia, Jul-Aug, Vol 40, Issue 04,

Hong-kong.

Nguyen Dinh Chien, Pham Quoc Quan, Nguyen Cong Viet 2009.

Royal Seals of the Nguyen Dynasty in Viet Nam. National Museum

of Vietnamese History, Ha Noi. (Bi-lingual text)

ritUal diSH, R. of duy TAn, 1911. GOLD, 31.3CM (D), 1.4kG. ROYAL ANTIQUITIES COLLECTION

OF THE NGUYEN DYNASTY, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF VIETNAMESE HISTORY, HANOI

ritUal BoX. GOLD ENCRUSTED WITH JADE AND CORAL, 2.15kG.

ROYAL ANTIQUITIES COLLECTION OF THE NGUYEN DYNASTY,

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF VIETNAMESE HISTORY, HANOI


He [the king of Pegu] wears more rubies on him than the value of a very large city, and he wears them on all his toes. And on his legs he wears certain great rings of gold, all full of the most beautiful rubies; also his arms and his fingers all full. His ears hang down half a palm, through the great weight of the many jewels he wears there, so that seeing the person of the king by a light at night, he shines so much that he appears to be a sun. (Varthema 1863: 219-20).

hese words, written by an Italian adventurer Ludovico di Varthema, who

visited the court of Pegu (Bago) in Burma around 1505–06, conjure up an image of a wealthy Burmese court replete with gems and gold and truly dazzling to early European visitors. Other historical accounts of Burmese kings and their courts repeat these visions of palaces and temples of gold and silver, gems in abundance and ornately decorated furniture and costume.

Visitors to Burma today see evidence of such riches in the many pagodas and temples that are accessible to all, yet where are these luxuriously adorned royal palaces, furnishing and costumes now? This is a question with no simple answer. When the last Burmese king, Thibaw (r.1878–1885) was dethroned, many royal possessions were either dispersed or their ownership transferred to the British colonisers. Thibaw’s great Lion Throne, the Sihasana, was sent to India, while much of the royal regalia was transferred to London, and entered the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). Without royal patronage, wooden palaces deteriorated, burned or were later destroyed during World War II, costumes and textiles have succumbed to insect damage, jewels and gold sold off, while most palanquins and royal barges have long since disappeared.

While much has been lost, what remains of the last Burmese royal collection is truly spectacular. On public display at the National Museum in Yangon are the Lion Throne, some royal regalia, furniture, costumes and other royal possessions such as manuscripts and jewellery. The complexity of the royal objects, both in materials and decoration, makes it easy to imagine the splendour that was recounted by so many foreigners who visited the courts of Burma. Surviving photographs

of the royal palace of Mandalay, the king and queen, courtiers and other scenes also show us the richness of the royal household and its material possessions.

The Lion Throne is the only remaining example of nine commissioned around 1858 by Thibaw’s predecessor King Mindon (r.1853–78) who installed them in the new Palace of Mandalay in 1859. Each featured a specific symbol and was made of different types of wood symbolising the eight virtues of a king, with the Lion Throne being the most important.

Actually, two identical Lion Thrones were made at the time, these being traditionally counted together. One was placed in the Hluttaw, the court building where the king would preside over meetings with his ministers and pronounce royal orders. The other, which still survives, was placed in the Lion Throne room in the Mandalay Palace under a seven-tiered roof. Positioned between the main Audience Hall and the king’s own chambers, its location represented the kingdom’s centre of power (Fraser-Lu 1994: 99–100). Its return by the British from India at the time of Burmese independence in 1948 was of symbolic significance. The Lion Throne is one of the finest extant examples of Burmese woodcarving, with its elaborate detailing, gilding and inlay of gems and glass mosaics. Today it forms the centrepiece of the National Museum of Myanmar.

Some of the most spectacular courtly objects are Thibaw’s royal regalia, integral to court etiquette and major ceremonies. During Thibaw’s reign these consisted of 35 gold objects, each allocated a place on the left or right side of the throne. Objects included betel bowls and containers, flower caskets, goblets and covers. In 1964 following extensive negotiations the British Government returned the royal regalia to General Ne Win with the Burmese government gifting one object, a magnificent betel container in the shape of a mythical bird, to the V&A as thanks for keeping the royal regalia safe.

While the objects themselves readily demonstrate the skill of Burmese artisans and the extensive use of gold, gems, silk and other luxury materials, they were much more than decorative items. Each object served a specific purpose and the materials used

were prescribed by sumptuary laws. Written accounts of court process from the 1600s detail these laws and indicate a sophisticated etiquette of behaviour was in place. The British diplomat and army officer, Michael Symes, published a comprehensive account of his Burmese experiences while on an official visit to meet the king of Ava, Bodawpaya, in 1795 and quickly appreciated the importance of such laws:

It has already been noticed, that almost every article of use, as well as ornament, particularly in their dress, indicates the rank of the owner; the shape of the beetle-box, which is carried by an attendant after a Birman [sic] of distinction wherever he goes, his earrings, cap of ceremony, horse furniture, even the metal of his spitting-pot and drinking-cup are made (which, if of gold, denote him to be a man of high consideration), all are indicative of the gradations of society; and woe be unto him that assumes the insignia of a degree which is not his legitimate right. (Symes 1800: 310)

The king’s regalia can be considered the most significant courtly objects, potent symbols of kingship. The Royal Orders of Burma include reference to various kings’ regalia since 1598 and while there is some consistency, it is clear that many objects changed over time. For example, while Thibaw’s display comprised 35 objects, the Royal Orders for Alaungpaya (r.1752-60) list 26. There are some fanciful notions about the origins of the royal regalia, those of Thibaw being either ‘a gift from a friendly king or a captured thing from an enemy king or an heirloom handed down from Mahasamada the first king on earth.’ (Than Tun 1985).

There is a long history of Burmese kings associating themselves with great rulers of the past and creating things anew, and there

T

t H E J E W E l l E d W o r l d o F B U r M E S E K i N G S

Charlotte GallowaylioN tHroNE 1858, WOOD, LACQUER, GILDING, GLASS.

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MYANMAR, YANGON


KiNG tHiBaW ALBUM C. 1900, JOHANNES & CO.

(PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIO), MANDALAY, BURMA (MYANMAR),

ALBUMEN SILVER PHOTOGRAPH, 15.0 X 10.0 CM,

NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA, CANBERRA

BEtEl BoX aNd StaNd, MANDALAY, BURMA 1850-75, FILIGREE WORk IN GOLD ON A GOLD GROUND, OUTLINED WITH BANDS OF RUBIES

AND IMITATION EMERALDS, WITH SOME EMBOSSING; EYES OF RUBIES, 41.5 CM (H), 35.5 CM (L), 18 CM (W). GIVEN BY THE GOVERNMENT OF

BURMA, PP H.E. U. HLA MANLY, AMBASSADOR OF BURMA, LONDON © ViCtoria aNd alBErt MUSEUM, loNdoN

have been few material objects of power that can reliably be confirmed as heirlooms passed down to successive monarchs. This is related in part to notions of Buddhism and karma. For new kings, especially those who have overthrown a ruler, reusing royal regalia could be seen as a portent for suffering the same fate as the king just deposed. Hence new regalia were sometimes commissioned to distance the owner from the past, free from any negative associations. This behaviour is also seen when new rulers established their own capital city, something that has happened regularly in Burma’s history.

All courtly goods can be viewed as the accoutrements of kings and their entourage. From costume through to furniture, each object served a functional purpose, and supported the legitimacy of the king and his court. The royal regalia were described and illustrated in great detail in manuscripts. Likewise, manuscripts outlined allowed possessions and the types of materials which could be used for differing ranks. Thibaw’s tax records of 1882 indicate allowances were paid to carvers, needle workers, gold-lace weavers, jewellers, sequin makers, royal weavers and embroiderers, to name a few of the craftspeople required to satisfy court-ordered demand for sumptuary goods (U Tin 1931: 621-23). The privileges described for various ranks at court ranged from the number of fringes on a sash, the types of official cap robes and earrings, through to the form of horse trappings. There were five types of official litters, four types of state barges and two types of elephant trappings (U Tin: 458-72). All aspects of courtly life were subject to ritual and ceremony.

Today, while only a small part remains of the Burmese courtly collections, our appreciation of Burma’s royal patronage is still seen through the many temples that were built and renewed in their names. For while the rulers and their capitals changed, and royal regalia often made anew, the country’s Buddhist traditions have been a constant. It has been the duty of kings to uphold Buddhism and this was most often done by directing their patronage to significant public buddhist sites such as the Shwedagon and Mahamuni pagodas. It is here, rather than in conventional notions of royal collections, that the legacies of Burmese kings have endured.

Charlotte Galloway is a Lecturer in Asian Art History

and Curatorial Studies in the Centre for Art History

and Art Theory at the Australian National University.

Her specialist research area is the art of Burma.

rEFErENCESFraser-Lu, Sylvia. 1994. Burmese Crafts past and Present, kuala

Lumpur: Oxford University Press, pp99-100

Symes, Michael. 1800. An Account of an Embassy to the Kingdom

of Ava in the Year 1795, London: Bulmer and Co. Reprint 1995

New Delhi: Asian Educational Services.

Than Tun. 1985. The Royal Orders of Burma, A.D. 1598-1885,

kyoto: The Center for Southeast Asian Studies, kyoto University,

part 3, A.D 1751-1781 pp.x-xii

U Tin. The Royal Administration of Burma (first published 1931),

translated by Euan Bagshawe, Bangkok: Ava Publishing House

2001, pp.621-23

Varthema, Ludovico di. The Travels of Ludovico di Varthema in

Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix, in Persia, India, and

Ethiopia, A.D. 1503–1508. Translated by John W. Jones. Edited by

George P. Badger. Hakluyt Society Publications, 1st ser., no. 32.

1863. Reprint. New York: Burt Franklin, n.d, pp.219-220.

For a complete list see http://www.myanmars.net/myanmar-

museum/myanmar-royal-regelia3.htm


he royal collections of Cirebon demonstrate the impact of royal

aristocrats on Cirebon’s material culture, evident when considering specific sites connected with Cirebon’s royal courts, keraton, and in relation to art forms associated with the courts, such as batik textiles and pewayangan, shadow theatre imagery. Ceribon has been a bustling international trading port, as well as a distinguished centre of Islamic religion in Java, for centuries. These influences have met to configure a distinctive and unique material culture, which is primarily articulated through the lens of the courts and their collections.

A venerated site of pilgrimage, the royal cemetery (makam) of Cirebon is named after Sunan Gunungjati (1479–1568), the founder of the Cirebon kingdom on the north coast of Java and the Javanese Sultanate of Banten. Sunan Gunungjati is revered as one of the ‘Wali Songo’ or nine apostles saints of Javanese Islam.

While visiting the royal makam of Sunan Gunungjati in November 2013 on the day of Nadran festivities, the makam was filled with chanting Muslim worshippers and pilgrims indicating the significance of the site itself and the continued respect for the forbears of Cirebon and Islam. This is an annual ceremony when offerings are made by local fishermen to the rivers leading to the Cirebon Harbour in order to seek safety and fecundity from the sea in the coming year. Entering the makam reveals rows of graves adorned with carved headstones and the occasional intricate wooden grave-marker bearing Javanese and Arabic script, representing 20 generations of the royal lineages of Cirebon (Yayasan Keraton Kesephuan 2004:10).

A striking visual feature of the makam is its walls, adorned with Chinese, Japanese, Arabic and European ceramics. Rows of hand-painted 18th century Dutch tiles line the walls, together with repeated circular arrangements of hand-painted glazed dishes and plates featuring stenciled motifs. Due to maritime links between Cirebon, India and China for over 2000 years, the pesisir shores of north Java were graced with valuable trade ceramics that symbolised wealth and prestige among the Javanese elite (Miksic 2005: 122-3). This collection of Ming ceramics at the Sunan Gunungjati makam reinforces the view that a Chinese Muslim community was established in Cirebon by the early 15th century (Miksic

2005: 127). Its continued presence is evidenced by a dedicated space within the makam for local Chinese Muslim worshippers.

Indeed the marriage of Sunan Gunungjati to Princess Ong Tien, the daughter of a Chinese Emperor, strengthened ties between Cirebon and Chinese traders and fostered the development of the impressive ceramic collection held by the sultanate. According to local accounts provided by an attendant at the makam, Princess Ong Tien instructed that the palace’s ceramics be encased in plastered walls to ensure the continued preservation of the ceramic collection. Whether true or not, this action has ensured the unique decoration of the Cirebon royal cemetery and ongoing access by the people of Cirebon, irrespective of class or social position, to this royal ceramic collection. The trend was later adopted at the palaces in Cirebon, all of which feature wall surfaces highly decorated with ornate ceramics.

Several magnificent Chinese stoneware storage jars (guci) are permanently installed at the makam and contain water that flows from an onsite natural spring, whose water is used by pilgrims following worship. One of the guci features relief designs of phoenixes and birds around the shoulder beneath a series of sturdy lugs. Probably dated to the 18th century, the surfaces of the guci are adorned with floating abstracted cloud-like motifs, known in Cirebon as megamendung. Influences from trade ceramics were also adapted into local Cirebon batik designs.

While the phoenix motif has been widely incorporated into coastal, pesisiran batik designs in towns such as Indramayu, Bayanumas and Pekolongan, the megamendung motif, which classically consists of nine gradated shades of colour from white to red, remains one of the most identifiable batik motifs worn by attendants (abdi dalam) at the four Cirebon keraton and now also in the wider community.

Keraton Kesepuhan, established in the 15th century, is the oldest of the four keraton in Cirebon. Due to internal disputes Keraton Kanoman and Keraton Keprabonan were formed in 1677 and then Keraton Keceribonan in 1807. These keraton are all located within the city of Cirebon and although they no longer govern the region they still exert significant influence in the wider community. ‘Keraton batik’ is a widely used term in Cirebon and refers to batik motifs that remain the purview of royal family members and the abdi dalam. Traditionally, keraton batik was created in Trusmi, an outlying area of Cirebon.

Jarit batik lengths often feature three layers of iconography, alluding to the concept of the three worlds: the lower underworld, the mundane world and the heavenly realms. Architectural features of the Keraton Kesepuhan, such as the red brick gapura or gateways, the pleasure gardens and volcanic rockeries are depicted in keraton batik. Mythical animals based on syncretic Cirebon iconography known as the singa barong, part elephant, part serpent and part eagle, reflect

T

t H E r o Ya l C o l l E C t i o N S i N C i r E B o N , i N d o N E S i a : a l i V i N G t r a d i t i o N

Joanna BarrkmaniNtErior WallS oF tHE SUNaN GUNUNGJati roYal CEMEtErY, CIREBON, LINED WITH CHINESE,

JAPANESE AND EUROPEAN TRADE CERAMICS. PHOTO: JOANNA BARRkMAN, 2013


the respective influences of India, China and Arabia. This mythical animal was originally created as a royal pusaka (heirloom) carriage, also colloquially referred to as singa barong, made in 1549 for the Sultan Kesepuhan and documented as: ‘Perhaps one of the most spectacular of royal heirlooms still owned by an Islamic court…’ (Bennett 2005: 52). Here, a protective trident is wielded by the trunk of the singa barong, itself protected by the golden umbrella, songsong kuning, symbolic of nobility. Such imagery continues to feature on courtly keraton batiks.

Another distinctive feature on batik keraton in Ceribon is the wadasan motif. A depiction of the volcanic rock formations used to create the pleasure gardens of the Keraton Kesepuhan, the wadasan design is produced using curved linear gradation of colour and is stylistically related to the megamendung motif. Within the rock formations are indications of miniature caves. The cave image suggests a gapura, symbolic of Javanese places of retreat for meditation and asceticism, and implies that the palace is a mystical place where the ruler, through practicing austerities, acquires exceptional spiritual powers (Miksic 2005: 126). The wadasan design, like the megamendung pattern, has been adopted as an icon of Cirebon and is used to decorate royal batik keraton, palace entranceways, the singa barong carriage, glass paintings, grave-markers and wayang kulit puppets.

The wadasan batik motif is one of several distinctive features appearing on the royal wayang kulit collection at the Keraton Keceribonan. Often embellishing the base of the puppet, the wadasan pattern is painted in red, white and blue, using gradated lines of colour in keeping with batik textile design. This painting style featuring coloured linear bands is also adapted for use on puppets including the depiction of the fire puppet, api wayang kulit, whereby red, pink and crimson flames are painted on leather. Another link between Cirebon batik and shadow puppets is the inclusion of the elephant, serpent and eagle motifs as depicted on the ‘tree of life’, kekayonan puppet used to mark the commencement, scene changes and end of shadow theatre performances.

The Keraton Keceribonan royal collection includes furniture, batiks, trade ceramics, weapons, coins and documents, as well as over 260 wayang kulit puppets, made from buffalo and cow leather with guide-sticks crafted from horn and wood. Known as the Kotak Angon collection, the puppets are stored in a large wooden trunk inside the keraton. It remains a working collection, used on occasions befitting shadow theatre pewayangan

performances, such as royal weddings and official ceremonies. To ensure care and preservation, the trunk is opened on a monthly basis, every Jumat Liwon, one of the five days identified by the Javanese calendar known as Pasaran. The puppets are carefully taken out and hung across the width of the room from morning to evening. This process has ensured that the collection has remained free of pests and mould for almost a century in the tropical climate of Java’s north coast.

Wayang kulit are used to perform the Mahabarata and Ramayana, Hindu classics which have been adapted by Wali – distinguished Muslim leaders – to reflect Islamic values and faith. One example of this adaptation is the panakawan, ‘clown servant’, repertoire which in Balinese and Javanese shadow theatre features four panakawan: Semar/Twalen, Merdah/Werdah, Gareng and Petruk. In Cirebon, however, the pewayangan theatre includes nine characters: Semar (also known as Curis), Bita Rota, Duala, Bagong, Cunkring, Ceblok, Bagal Buntung, Sekar Pandang and Gareng. The use of nine panakawan characters has been interpreted by local scholars as a reflection of the nine Wali Songo (Mr Bambang Irianto, Cirebon, pers comm, 15 November 2013). The panakawan perform the role of translating the words, thoughts and deeds of the aristocratic ksatriya characters into everyday colloquial language, making the action accessible to the audience.

Another adaptation that has occurred in royal Cirebon shadow theatre is the ‘recasting’ of Hindu characters from the classical texts as negative rather than positive forces. The character of Batara Guru, customarily represented as the all-knowing god who embodies the ‘radiant spiritual force of man’ is reinvented here as a negative, arrogant character. When the lame and disfigured panakawan, Bagal Bentung, asks Betara Guru ‘Whose child am I?’ ‘Whose responsibility am I?’ Betara Guru consistently replies ‘You are the son of Semar!’ ‘No I am not!’ replies

Bagal Bentung. This encounter is played out until Bagal Bentung yells ‘You’re wearing your sumping (ear decoration) back-to-front!’ Betara Guru busily adjusts his ear decoration as he departs the drama, a metaphor for his inability to listen to the ordinary people. This tale encapsulates an important point about Cirebon courtly pewayanagan. The Hindu gods are depicted as being removed from the populace and unconcerned with their wellbeing, in contrast to the presented position of Islam as advocating egalitarianism and enshrining active concern for the wellbeing of one’s neighbours and community.

These examples of wayang kulit puppets, batik and ceramics drawn from the royal collections of Cirebon all share the features of being associated with living traditions – from the use of trade ceramics as decorative devices and as containers for holy water used in purification ceremonies, to keraton batik worn as courtly regal attire, and wayang kulit used to enact ancient dramas now infused with Islamic values for entertainment at royal occasions. In these contexts the significance of these artworks continues to unfold as they remain central to the activities of both the court and members of the wider Cirebon community.

Joanna Barrkman is an independent curator, currently

contracted to the National Gallery of Australia and

the Fowler Museum, UCLA. She is co-curator, with

Roy W. Hamilton, of the exhibition Textiles of Timor:

Island of the Woven Sea, opening in Los Angeles on

7 September 2014. She is a PhD candidate at the

Australian National University.

rEFErENCESYayasan keraton Cirebon, 2004. Mengenal Kasultanana

Kasepuhan, Cirebon – West Java, Yayasan keraton Cirebon.

Miksic, John, N. ‘The art of Cirebon and the image of the ascetic

in early Javanese Islam’ in Bennett, J. (ed.) 2005. Crescent Moon.

Islamic Art & Civilisation in Southeast Asia, Art Gallery of South

Australia, Adelaide, pp. 122–138.

Bennett, James ‘Islamic Art and Civilisation in Southeast Asia’ in

Bennett, J. (ed.) 2005. Crescent Moon. Islamic Art & Civilisation in

Southeast Asia, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, pp. 18–91.

StoraGE Jar (GUCi), 18TH CENTURY, STONEWARE CONTAINING

HOLY WATER AT THE SUNAN GUNUNGJATI ROYAL CEMETERY. PHOTO:

JOANNA BARRkMAN, 2013

a YoUNG PUPPEtEEr WitH SHadoW PUPPEtS FROM

THE kERATON kECERIBONAN COLLECTION. HIS SHIRT

FEATURES THE CIREBON MEgAMENDuNg PATTERN.

PHOTO: JOANNA BARRkMAN, 2013


pened to the public on 9 May 2012, the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles

(QSMT) is the gift of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit and the Foundation for the Promotion of Supplementary Occupations and Related Techniques (SUPPORT Foundation) to the people of Thailand.

It all started in 1970, when His Majesty King Bhumibol and Her Majesty Queen Sirikit paid a visit to Na Wa, in Sakon Nakon province in northeastern Thailand to offer help to victims of flooding. Realizing that giving supplies to people was just a stopgap measure, Their Majesties decided to find the villagers some form of supplementary income. During the royal couple’s visit, Her Majesty noticed the beautiful ikat (mat mii) skirts, long abandoned by urban women, worn by local women and recognised that they were still being made. As a result, Queen Sirikit decided to purchase the textiles for her own wardrobe and encouraged the villagers to weave more silk. It subsequently occurred to Her Majesty that hand weaving could provide an income for these farming families that would be unaffected by weather conditions.

From this beginning, Her Majesty created the SUPPORT Foundation in 1976 to further encourage the production of traditional Thai handicrafts. Over the past 40 years the Foundation has expanded to include more than 100,000 men and women across Thailand

whose sole or supplementary income is derived from craft traditions including weaving and embroidery.

To create awareness of the need to promote and preserve indigenous textiles for future generations, Her Majesty decided to establish the Museum, which was initially led by the late Professor Smitthi Siribhadra, Her Majesty’s senior adviser on artistic affairs. The Museum’s objectives, set by Her Majesty, are being achieved by staff, guided by Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, the Museum’s patron.

Housed within the grounds of the Grand Palace, the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles was officially opened by Her Royal Highness on 26 April 2012. The Italianate building was

constructed in 1870 during the reign of King Rama V on the site of a single-story army barracks built in the early Rattanakosin period (1782 - c. 1810). Named for its original occupant, the Royal Department of Tax Revenue (later the Ministry of Finance), the Ratsadakorn-bhibhathana building was most likely designed by the Grassi brothers, three Italian architects working in Bangkok at the time.

The transformation of the former office building into a textiles museum began in 2003, when Her Majesty asked permission - graciously granted by His Majesty the King - to use the then vacant building to house the new museum. Over nine years, the building was completely remodelled: its modern facilities include a new lobby, fully climate-controlled galleries and cases, textile-specific

O

t H E Q U E E N S i r i K i t M U S E U M o F t E X t i l E S , B a N G K o K

Piyanan (Poom) Petcharaburanin

EXtErior ViEW OF THE QUEEN SIRIkIT MUSEUM OF TEXTILES

ViEW oF tHE EXHiBitioN, FoR THe Love of HeR PeoPLe: HER MAJESTY QuEEN SIRIKIT CREATES THE SuPPORT FOuNDATION


storage, an education studio, library, lecture hall, a gift and bookstore, and Thailand’s first dedicated textile conservation laboratory.

The Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles displays a broad range of textiles and dress. Important pieces from Her Majesty’s wardrobe tailored by both leading Thai and foreign fashion houses, Pierre Balmain in particular, are one of the highlights of the Museum’s holdings. There is also a collection of older textiles and clothing from many of the minority groups of mainland Southeast Asia and a selection of textiles from various SUPPORT Foundation projects around the country.

The Museum has four galleries with three opening exhibitions: Artistry in Silk: The Royal Style of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit; Fashioning Tradition: Queen Sirikit Creates a National Dress for Thailand, and For the Love of Her People: Her Majesty Queen Sirikit Creates the SUPPORT Foundation. Artistry in Silk features more than a dozen designer ensembles made from handwoven silk and cotton textiles produced by members of SUPPORT. Fashioning Tradition tells the story of Her Majesty’s creation of a new national dress for Thai women. For the Love of Her People is a multimedia presentation on the creation of the SUPPORT Foundation. All text in the Museum is in Thai and English. An English catalogue for the first two exhibitions mentioned above, titled In Royal Fashion: The Style of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit of Thailand, is now available, and an English language version of the publication to accompany the third exhibition is in press. Thai language editions of both publications are available at the Museum.

The Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles is specifically dedicated to educating Thais in the field of textile conservation and care. Preservation starts with proper handling and storage, and the Museum is home to a state-of-the-art textile storage and conservation laboratory, the first in Thailand. The storage

system can house 10,000-15,000 items. It is fully climate-controlled to international standards and all objects are frozen before they are stored to eradicate possible mould and insect infestation. The conservation lab is a full-scale facility, with wet-cleaning capacity and an infrastructure for the treatment, analysis, exhibition, and storage preparation of the collection. All of the textiles and garments on display are exhibited in custom-designed glass cases. Each case is equipped with individual monitors providing real-time data on the exact humidity and temperature inside.

The QSMT fulfils Her Majesty’s desire that it serve as both a display space for Thailand’s textile traditions and an academic training facility to enhance the capacity of the region to preserve its cultural heritage. In support of this mandate, the Museum held its first international symposium, Weaving Royal Traditions through Time: Textiles and Dress at the Thai Court and Beyond from 6-9 November 2013. Attended by over 200 people from all over the world, the symposium included papers from international experts on diverse topics from conservation of Princess Grace of Monaco’s wedding dress to King Rama V’s collection of Indonesian batik. Australia was well-represented by speaker Gillian Green who discussed possible sources of royal imagery on Thai court textiles.

Piyanan (Poom) Petcharaburanin has worked as an

editor at the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles since

2010, responsible for exhibition texts, books and

museum publications. She wrote the Thai version of In

Royal Fashion: The Style of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit

of Thailand, a catalogue which accompanies the two

related museum exhibitions: Artistry in Silk: The Royal

Style of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit and Fashioning

Tradition: Her Majesty Queen Sirikit Creates a

National Dress for Thailand.

Photographs by Mr. Anak Navaraj and Ms. Ploypailin

Thapepong © Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles.

ENtraNCE TO FASHIONINg TRADITION: QuEEN SIRIKIT CREATES A NATIONAL DRESS FOR THAILAND

To register your interest, reserve a place or for further information contact Ray Boniface

PO Box U237 University of Wollongong NSW 2500 Australia

p: +61 2 4228 3887 m: 0409 927 129e: [email protected]

ABN 21 071 079 859 Lic No TAG1747

H E R I TA G E D E S T I N AT I O N SN AT U R E • B U I L D I N G S • P E O P L E • T R A V E L L E R S

INSIDE BURMA: THE ESSENTIAL EXPERIENCE

23 October – 11 November 2014Burma is undergoing unprecedented change and publicity. Archaeologist and TAASA contributor Dr Bob Hudson is the doyen of Burma guides

and his longstanding annual tour program features extended stays in medieval Mrauk U (capital of the lost ancient kingdom of Arakan) and Bagan, rivalling Angkor Wat as Southeast Asia’s richest archaeological precinct. Exciting experiences in

Yangon, Inle Lake, Mandalay and a private cruise down the mighty Ayeyarwady are also included.

Now is the time to see Burma before development and 'progress' change it forever.

Land Only cost per person twinshare ex Yangon $5975

27 October – 13 November 2014Angkor’s timeless grandeur is unmissable. But now Preah Vihear, the revered mountaintop temple of immense historical and political significance for the Khmers, is finally accessible. Yet Cambodia

offers a host of other important cultural and travel experiences: outstanding ancient,vernacular and French colonial architecture; spectacular riverine

environments; the ongoing restoration and revitalisation of Phnom Penh; culinary sensations

and beautiful countryside. Expatriate museologist, author, Siem Reap resident and TAASA contributor

Darryl Collins and Gill Green, President of TAASA and author specialising in Cambodian culture have designed and expertly co-host their longstanding

annual program.Land Only cost per person twinshare

ex Phnom Penh $5400

CAMBODIA: ANGKOR WAT, PREAH VIHEAR AND BEYOND


ach year for a little over two weeks from late October to mid-November,

an exhibition of a few dozen items from a remarkable Japanese royal collection attracts huge crowds. London’s Art Newspaper reported that, over the 17 days in late 2012, the daily average attendance of 14,240 visitors, almost exclusively domestic Japanese tourists, made The 64th Annual Exhibition of the Shoso-in Treasures at the Nara National Museum the best attended exhibition worldwide (April 2013). Yet there were no complaints as the superbly organised but largely self-managed queue snaked along five abreast for an hour or so outside the modern concrete replica of the original timber repository. (In fact Yomiuri Online provides Japanese visitors with information and updates on waiting times ). Sheltered from the sometimes inclement autumn weather under specially erected canopies, time was whiled away with food and drink from temporary marquees. And the wait was richly rewarded: within the specially built modern hall the small but broad selection of 64 treasures from one of the world’s most extraordinary royal collections of art, household objects, documents and Buddhist regalia provides a surprisingly vivid yet poignant insight into palace life in Nara, Japan’s 8th-century capital.

The objects in the Shoso-in collection, exemplified in the range of materials, techniques and types selected annually, demonstrate the superb levels of craft skills of the Tempyo or Nara period of early Japanese history (710–794). The collection also vividly illustrates the internationalism of the royal court through the variety and quantity of exotic treasures—including ceramics, textiles, glass, wood, precious metals and paintings—from regions stretching along the busy trading routes from the Mediterranean Sea, the early Islamic world, India and Southeast Asia to China and Korea. However, arguably just as significant is the window the 8th-century royal collection opens to the rich sources and varied forms of inspiration that would quickly be assimilated into Japanese arts and aesthetics. Indeed the problems of attribution of origin to many of the thousands of objects in the Shoso-in treasury is a testament to how quickly ideas, motifs, materials and techniques were exchanged and adopted by cultures along the ‘Silk Roads’, including Japan.

Possibly the oldest and undoubtedly the most intact royal collection still in existence, the

history of Shoso-in collection is fortunately well documented. During the reign of the second Tempyo emperor Shomu (r. 724–749) the court actively sent envoys abroad and was host to a number of international visitors, including Buddhist teachers. A devout Buddhist, it was Emperor Shomu who commissioned the huge Vairocana Buddha (Daibutsu) for the Todai-ji temple in the capital Nara in 743. When the emperor, who had abdicated in 749, died in 756 his grieving widow the Empress Dowager Komyo dedicated many of the former emperor’s personal and household effects—‘various articles that he had handled … which are in truth rare national treasures’— to the Todai-ji (Empress Dowager Komyo’s prayer is

translated in Jiro Harada 1937). The elegantly written dedication prayer in which Komyo laments that the sight of the objects causes her immense grief, and an inventory of the objects in the gift are among 10,000 documents that form part of the Shoso-in collection, along with manuscripts, poems, letters, calligraphic scrolls, writing implements and storage boxes. Further donations continued over the intervening years until the death of the Empress Dowager in 760.

An important component of the Shoso-in treasures is of course Buddhist. From many items of the regalia used in the actual eye-opening ceremony for the Daibustu which was presided over by an Indian monk, to

E

tHE SHoSo-iN trEaSUrY – a roYal CollECtioN BotH EXtraordiNarY aNd EVErYdaY

Robyn Maxwell

tHE SHoSo-iN, TODAI-JI, NARA CIRCA 756. PHOTO: IMPERIAL HOUSEHOLD AGENCY

iNCENSE BUrNEr iN tHE ForM oF a lotUS, 8TH CENTURY, LACQUER AND GOLD LEAF ON WOOD, 17.0 X 56.0 CM.

SHOSO-IN COLLECTION. PHOTO: IMPERIAL HOUSEHOLD AGENCY


EMPrESS KoMYo’S dEdiCatioN PraYEr, KoKKa CHiMPo-CHo, JAPAN, 756, SCROLL,

INk ON PAPER, WIDTH 25.8 CM. SHOSO-IN COLLECTION. PHOTO: IMPERIAL HOUSEHOLD AGENCY

PaNEl FroM a FoldiNG SCrEEN, 8TH CENTURY,

STENCIL-DYED SILk, 149.5 X 57.0 CM. SHOSO-IN COLLECTION.

PHOTO: IMPERIAL HOUSEHOLD AGENCY

ordination banners, robes, incense burners, prayer beads, and implements such as vajra thunderbolt sceptres used in Buddhist rites, these gifts from the Empress, as she expressed in her prayer, were intended to speed her late husband on his journey to the Western Paradise. The religious paraphernalia is suitably grand, conveying a sense of the spectacle that would have accompanied Buddhist rites in court and temple. Depicting mythical creatures and imaginative floral forms, the intricate polychrome lacquer and gold ornamentation on each of the lotus petals encircling a sumptuous large pedestal of an incense burner typifies this richness.

Today, the items stored in the Shoso-in provide a rich visual account of seasonal daily activities and recurring state ceremony. The palace household effects range from storage cabinets, fine utensils, elaborate vessels and containers, soft furnishings and textiles, painted screens and musical instruments to personal articles of clothing and ornamentation, and decorated weapons. Invariably exquisitely crafted and in generally superb condition, the legacy is remarkable for the insights it provides into the development of Japanese arts and crafts.

Amongst the most popular exhibits each year are spectacular large objects used in palace pastimes, such as a stringed lute, brilliantly inlaid with multicoloured mother-of-pearl, or a gaming boards for go decorated in delicate marquetry and accompanied by various sets of tors made of rare and expensive materials.

Crucial to this evolution was the unprecedented movement and rich exchange of goods, materials, designs, techniques and philosophies along what has come to be known as the Silk Roads across the Asian continent at its most active and interesting period. In particular, spectacular Persian and Chinese items feature prominently in the Shoso-in collection. The impeccable provenance and fascinating variety of the imported items in the Shoso-in treasury makes them an invaluable tool for Silk Road scholars. The origins of objects of a number of items in the collections is still a matter of debate: a silk textile displaying archers and prey, a popular Sassanian motif, might be Persian, or a Tang Chinese manifestation, or indeed a Japanese domestic version—ancestor to the modern nishiki luxury fabric—inspired by either Persian, or Chinese imports, or both.

The 8th century was a vibrant period of internationalism not only in Nara, but at other major centres along the trade routes and the transmission and adoption of images and techniques led to a fluorescence in the arts of many cultures. Situated at the far eastern extremity, the Japanese court was uniquely placed to enjoy the Shoso-in collection. Each year the Shoso-in exhibition includes both Japanese and imported works, in a wide range of media and function, and covering overtly Buddhist and Imperial regalia, alongside

charming everyday, albeit gorgeous, articles belonging to members of the royal household.

Not only are the Shoso-in treasures astonishing in terms of their quality, quantity and variety: the fact that they have survived for over a millennium in a wooden building in earthquake-prone and war-ravaged Japan where fires have destroyed many important buildings and their exquisite contents is exceptional. Indeed the name Shoso-in was once not specific to the starkly simple 33 metre-long Japanese cypress structure in the grounds of the Todai-ji temple—in the past many storehouses [shoso] were erected in the precincts [in] of temples and government buildings. Today the term denotes the one surviving example. While the remarkable royal collection has now been moved to safer fire-proof conditions in nara and, in the case of many of the textiles, to the National Museum in Tokyo, inspecting the exterior of the original repository is an essential part of the experience of visitors to the annual exhibition of the royal treasures Shoso-in.

Robyn Maxwell is Senior Curator of Asian art at the

National Gallery of Australia.

rEFErENCES‘Visitor figures 2102: Exhibition & museum attendance survey’,

The Art Newspaper, No 245, April 2013

‘The Shoso-in, or Imperial Repository at Nara’ in Jiro Harada,

glimpse of Japanese ideals: lectures on Japanese art and culture,

kokusai Bunka Shinkokai, Tokyo, 1937

Ryoichi Hayashi, The Silk Road and the Shoso-in, Weatherhill, New

York, 1975

kaneo Matsumoto, Jodai-gire : 7th and 8th century textiles in Japan

from the Shoso-in and Horyu-ji, Shikosha, kyoto, 1984

Shosoin Office, Treasures of the Shosoin, Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo, 1965


he first portrait studios in the world were opened in London in 1841 and

Prince Albert - ever the enthusiast for new technology - became one of the first Royals to be photographed when he sat to daguerreotypist William Constable in Brighton in 1842. His ‘likeness’ was a private affair, daguerreotypes were one-off items with limited mass market potential. Photographs were, however, increasingly used to lend authenticity to drawn illustrations in newspapers and journals. By the late 1850s ‘from a photograph’ became a featured by-line of portraits in books and illustrated papers such as The Illustrated London News.

What made the most difference to the commercialisation of photography from the 1860s was the world-wide craze for collecting celebrity portraits and exotic ‘types’, made possible by the availability of cheap portraits on paper. In an Imperialist era, the popularity of images of exotic royals in colonial domains encouraged travelling photographers or those in foreign ports, to add these images to their inventory.

In 1859 French photographer AAE Disderi marketed portraits of Louis Napoleon III in the new miniature calling card sized carte de visite (cdv) format he had introduced in 1854, and in 1860 John Mayall marketed a set of cdv portraits of the British Royal Family in a special album that sold in hundreds of thousands all over the anglophile world. Practitioners of the new vocation of ‘daguerreian artist’, ‘photographist’ and finally ‘photographer’ were quick to apply ‘By Royal Appointment’ to their products as soon as a royal client patronised their services. A lucky few could be listed at the higher rank of royal or court photographer if they photographed the reigning royal family and entourage. The concept of the royal or court photographer, the hoffotograaf in Dutch and hofphotograph in German, followed naturally throughout Europe from established traditions of the favoured royal portrait artist.

Stationers across Asia followed suit by selling imported images of European royalty, and studios sought ‘By Royal Appointment’ status via the patronage of local vice regal representatives or, more rarely, via visiting European royalty by presenting them with albums of local views and personalities. An early visitor was the Duc de Penthièvre,

grandson of the French King Louis Philippe exiled in England, whose 1866–68 world tour was made into a long running bestseller Voyage autour du monde (1868) by his childhood friend and official companion Ludovic, Marquis (later Comte) de Beauvoir. The pair visited Java for a week in early December 1866 and de Beauvoir collected locally made photographs, including portraits of Javanese and Balinese princes by Isidore van Kinsbergen.

The exchange of painted portraits between European royals and Asian monarchs was an established protocol by the 18th century and this practise was promptly transferred to the new though less flattering, medium of photography in the 1850s. A number of Indian

princes and maharajas posed for and also took photographs from the 1850s. Chinese and Japanese emperors were not early enthusiasts for photography, although other elite aristocrats and officials in both countries were early experimenters.

The Thai King Mongkut (Rama IV) was the earliest and most assiduous of monarchical enthusiasts for the medium in Asia. He had the French bishop in Bangkok import a daguerreotype camera in 1847 and one of the Bishop’s priests learned to operate it. King Mongkut received another instrument from Queen Victoria in 1850 and actively sought to have his own relatives trained in photography. His brother Vice-King Pinklao

T

t H E H o F F o t o G r a a F : P o r t r a i t P H o t o G r a P H E r t o i N d o N E S i a N r o Y a l t Y

Gael NewtonJaVaNESE PriNCE, SoN oF tHE rEGENt oF BaNdUNG IN BRIDEGROOM’S DRESS C.1865, ISIDORE VAN kINSBERGEN,

ALBUMEN SILVER PHOTOGRAPH, 13.5 X 18 CM. NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA, CANBERRA


and several courtiers, become adept over the next decades through training and observing foreign photographers at work.

In November 1857 Queen Victoria received a daguerreotype portrait of Mongkut – now attributed to the Thai court photographer Luang Wisut Yothamather. Being photographed was a political performance the King well understood. He also sent a daguerreotype portrait of himself and Queen Debsirindra to President Franklin Pierce in 1856 as part of an exchange of gifts honouring the 1856 Harris Thai-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce. Both portraits survive as the earliest extant photographic portraits of an Asian, indeed of any, reigning monarch. Mongkut sent similar portraits to Pope Pius IX and Napoleon III. Mongkut’s son and heir, King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) continued the interest and took up the camera personally, a practise continued by the present day King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) (Morris (ed) 2009).

The earliest portrait photographer known to arrive in the former Dutch East Indies was Adolph Schaefer (c. 1820-73) in 1844. A German professional daguerreotypist working in The Hague, Schaefer had learned that medical officer Juriaan Munnich in Jakarta had failed in his 1841 Dutch Ministry of Colonies commission to ‘test out the heliographic apparatus in the tropics’ with a primary aim of securing daguerreotypes of Javanese antiquities and the Buddhist monument Borobudur.

Soon after his arrival in Jakarta, Schaefer succeeded in adjusting chemistry to tropical conditions and was offering the elite of Batavia the new art of daguerreotype likenesses. The following year he made views of the reliefs at Borobudur, over 50 of which are held in the Prentenkabinet at Leiden University Library (Wachlin 2007: 739-741).

None of his portraits are known to survive but Schaefer may have been the maker of a daguerreotype that appears to be the basis for an 1853 coloured lithograph ‘Een Javaschen prins – Un prince Javanais’ (believed to be Hamengkubuwono V r. 1820 – 1855) by Jakarta-based artist Auguste van Pers (1815-1871). The image appears in the first part of the 56-plate Nederlandisch Oost-Indische typen series published by subscription in The Hague by lithographer CW Mieling from 1853–62. This huge undertaking includes a few plates that are startling in their realism and the look-to-camera expression of those posing for a photographer.

A stream of itinerant daguerreotypists passed through the Indies in the 1850s; it is not

known if any sought or gained access to royal clients. Swedish itinerant daguerreotypist and photographist Cesar Düben (1819–1888) reported on his visit to take photographs at the Kraton in Yogyakarta in January 1858 that he had photographed the family of Hamengkubuwono VI (r. 1855 to 1877). The Javanese princesses featured in one of the 15 lithographs based on his photographs in Düben’s 1886 memoir may have been from Yogyakarta. Düben seems not to have been granted a sitting by the Sultan himself but responded to his request to instruct a court member in the photographic process and presented his camera to the Sultan as a parting gift.

The Hamengkubuwono royal family at Yogyakarta appears to be first in Indonesia to be photographed and to have had their own official photographers in the 1860s. No daguerreotype images are extant but the new wet-plate photography on paper introduced in 1851 in England, which replaced the daguerreotype by the 1870s, greatly facilitated the circulation of images made off glass negatives. The young English photographers Walter B Woodbury (1834–1885) and James Page (1833–1865) of the Woodbury & Page atelier set up in Jakarta in 1857 after their not very successful Australian colonial ventures. Walter Woodbury had been acknowledged as the ‘best glass artist’ in Melbourne in 1854 by his employer, the skilled American daguerreotypist PM Batchelder.

Upon their arrival Woodbury and Page determined that there was European interest in images of antiquities and the inhabitants of ‘Princes Land’ in central Java. The duo made their first field trip to Yogyakarta and Surakarta in 1858 and marketed their first images of Indonesia in England in 1859. These were

published later in 1861 by Negretii & Zambra as expensive albumen on glass stereographs and again as richly coloured lantern slides in the 1860s by Newton & Co using the woodburytype process patented by Walter Woodbury in 1864. Illustrations after the first series were published in The Illustrated London News, 31 July 1861 and included Javanese aristocrats, court dancers and musicians. Walter is also most likely the maker of two half plate ambrotype portraits of Hamengkubuwono VI and his principal wife produced around 1858.

In 1879 under their successor, Walter’s younger brother Albert Woodbury, Woodbury & Page studio acquired a ‘By Royal Appointment’ status to the Dutch Crown. Their inventory listed numerous royal portraits, although none are named and pictures of sultans are lumped in with ‘native types’. What the sultans thought of this presumably demeaning hawking of their images around the world is not known. As in British India, the Sultans and Rajas of the Dutch East Indies were never granted the status of monarchs.

Woodbury & Page were not the only photographers active in Indonesia in the 1850s and 60s. The Flemish-Dutch theatre performer and artist Isidore van Kinsbergen (1821–1905) began work in Jakarta in the mid 1850s with French photographer AF Lecouteux (Asser et al 2006). Van Kinsbergen was favoured by the new Dutch Colonial Governor-General, Baron Sloet van der Beele and accompanied him on his 1863–65 tours of the residential districts of Java, Madura and Bali, and the four independent royal territories. By the mid 1860s, van Kinsbergen had an impressive repertoire of Javanese ‘native types’ and royal portraits in which the models have a strong presence as individuals.

MalE CoUrt daNCErS, YOGYAkARTA kRATON C.1885, kASSIAN CéPHAS, ALBUMEN SILVER PHOTOGRAPH, 9.4 X 13.6 CM.



His images were widely distributed, appearing as woodcuts in a number of European and American magazines but he does not appear to have called himself a hoffotograaf.

One of the first to claim the title of a photographer to the kratons was sergeant major and drawing master Simon Wilhelm Camerik (1830–1897). A Banda-born Dutchman, possibly part Indonesian, he may have trained in the Netherlands. He was working in Semarang as a photographer by 1864 and in that year marketed a set of ‘principal native grandees’ of Surakarta, Yogyakarta and Magelang as well as some views of Prambanam in the Semarang newspaper De Locomotief of 29 August. By 1866 In the Java-Bode of 17 February, he is listed as ‘Kunstschilder en photograaf van Z.H. den Sultan van Djocdjacarta’ (painter and photographer to the Sultan), an appellation also stamped on the backs of his cdv portraits of the vice regal resident Adriaan Jan Hendrik van der Mijll Dekker. Camerik also photographed the Surakarta Sultans Pakubwono IX and Mangkunegara IV and some of the same images appear among the ‘types’ marketed by Woodbury & Page in the miniature carte de visite format.

Camerik ceased work as a photographer after 1870 but apparently taught Kassian Céphas (1845–1912), one of the entourage of Hamengkubuwono VI and an early member of the Javanese Christian Church, who became the first and only indigenous hoffotograaf in the Indies. Céphas set up his own studio in his Jakarta home in 1871. By 1875 he was advertising his services as ‘CÉPHAS Photographist … photographer to the Sultan’, in De Locomotief of 9 July. He remained closely

associated with the Kraton and in particular worked with the Sultan’s Dutch physician Isaac Groneman, a dedicated scholar of Javanese culture and antiquities. Groneman published several elaborate publications on Javanese art and dance performance in the 1880s to early 90s which gave prominent credit to ‘Hoffotograaf K. Céphas’ and earned Céphas honorary membership of local and Dutch societies. Céphas was routinely described as the hoffotograaf Céphas in newspapers and returned to duties at the Yogyakarta kraton after 1904 as his son Sem took over the Céphas studio.

By the early 20th century, foreign photographers undertook the lesser role of ‘By royal appointment’- meaning supplier of goods and services. Such status (to the Dutch Crown) appeared on prints by the Surabaya studio of Armenian photographer Ohannes Kurkdjian (1851–1903) following presentation of his album of the local celebrations for Dutch Queen Wilhelmina I’s coronation in 1898, and was retained until the studio’s closure in 1936. One who did work for the four principalities in the 1920s was German Italian ethnographic photographer Tassilo Adam (1878–1955). Adam worked extensively with the Sultans at Yogyakarta and Surakarta to make detailed records of dance and musical performances in the mid 1920s. Although not claiming the ‘hoffotograaf’ title, Tassilo Adam combined the role of favoured court photographer with that of dedicated scholar. A number of his royal portraits are held in the National Gallery of Australia’s Indonesian photographs collection and a unique set of his personal albums was recently acquired by the Gallery.

As recent scholarship has shown, King Mongkut and his descendants in Thailand became adept at strategic diplomatic and ‘media management’ using gifts of official state and family portraits. Susie Protschky (2012) and other researchers have demonstrated that the sultans of Indonesia, several of whom became amateur photographers in their own right, were similarly adept. Only Hoffotograaf Céphas, however, filled the comparable continuous and active service of the European model ‘royal’ photographer.

Gael Newton is Senior Curator, Photography at the

National Gallery of Australia, who has developed its

collections of Asia-Pacific photography, particularly

from Indonesia. This was boosted in 2006 by the

acquisition of the collection of Amsterdam rare

book and print dealer, Leo Haks and is showcased

in the Gallery’s 2004 exhibition garden of the East:

photographs from Indonesia 1850s-1940s, 21

February – 22 June. A weekend of talks and tours will

be held 14-15 June, see www.nga.gov.au/gardeneast.

rEFErENCESAsser, Saskia E., Wachlin, Steven, Theuns-de Boer, Gerda, 2006.

Isidore van Kinsbergen, 1821-1905: Photo Pioneer and Theatre

Maker in the Dutch East Indies. kITLV Press, Leiden

Morris, R.C. (ed) 2009. Photographies East: The Camera and

Its Histories in East and Southeast Asia, Duke University Press,

Durham, NC.

Protschky, Susie. ‘Negotiating princely status through the

photographic gift: Paku Alam VII’s family album for Crown Princess

Juliana of the Netherlands, 1937’, Indonesia and the Malay World,

40:118 (2012): 298-314.

Steven Wachlin, ‘Indonesia (Netherlands, East Indies)’ in John

Hannavy (ed) Encyclopaedia of nineteenth-century photography,

Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, New York London, 2007, vol 1.

pp. 739-741.

dJoKJaKarta. CoUrt oFFiCialS oF PaKU alaM Vii BEariNG StatE rEGalia, C.1925, TASSILO ADAM,

GELATIN SILVER PHOTOGRAPH 21 X 25.2 CM. NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA, CANBERRA

JaVaNESE PriNCE, SoN oF tHE rEGENt oF BaNdUNG IN BRIDEGROOM’S

DRESS C.1865, ISIDORE VAN kINSBERGEN, ALBUMEN SILVER PHOTOGRAPH 13.5 X 18 CM.



o fellow members of the TAASA community, Dr John Yu requires very

little introduction. As well as an illustrious professional career devoted to children’s medicine, he has distinguished himself with a serious commitment to the arts of Southeast Asia. A selection of Indonesian textiles from the personal collection of Dr John Yu and Dr George Soutter are the focus of an exhibition at Mosman Art Gallery in Sydney from 3 May to 13 July 2014.

Anyone who has had the privilege of visiting the home of Dr John Yu and the late Dr George Soutter will appreciate the place of Southeast Asian art in their lives. Not only are collected objects displayed throughout the house, the bookshelves are filled with catalogues and reference books while recorded gamelan music and incense hint at attempts to recreate the settings in which many of these objects originated. Unlike the ceramics, bronzes, woodcarvings and sculptures on permanent display around the house, the extent of their Indonesian textile collection is not immediately apparent to the casual gaze of a visitor. After all, there is a limit to the number of lengths of fabric that a domestic space can accommodate, so hundreds of textiles are inevitably folded, rolled and packed away in chests of drawers and crates. The process of ‘unpacking’ these pieces and selecting the 50 works to exhibit was guided by John Yu and intended as a reflection of his predilections, knowledge and tastes as a collector.

Importantly, while the couple’s generosity has ensured that many pieces have made their way into public collections, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, this exhibition distinguishes between individual and institutional collecting by emphasising the shared passion of the couple and the way the collection evolved during their lifetime together. The present contribution is a brief survey of some key pieces nominated by John for inclusion in the exhibition, intended to highlight how his collection might be understood as a representation of the cultures that produced these textiles, the places where they were collected and well as the personal inclinations of these two collectors. The story of this textile collection begins in Sydney during the late 1970s with the acquisition of a man’s warp ikat shoulder or

loin cloth (selendang) from art dealer William Burlace of the former Nomad Gallery near Hyde Park. It was the apparent simplicity of the design and the depth of the indigo dye on this cloth from the island of Savu in Eastern Indonesia that caught John’s eye. Although the loin cloth and the shoulder cloth are not differentiated in Savunese terminology, as traditional attire for ceremonies a cloth like this would probably be wrapped around the neck and shoulders with a second, long fringed rectangular cloth wrapped around the hips (Duggan 2001: 53).

The people of Savu belong to one of two female-origin moieties known as hubi ae, the greater blossom, and hubi iki, the lesser blossom, with hubi being the general term for the blossom of the palm tree. Although each lineage has its own groups of motifs, the diamond shape (wo hepi) motif on this cloth is not linked to either of the female descent lines

and men from both groups are wrapped in a cloth with this motif for their funeral (2001:55). The motif itself is said to represent a stylised fish, which some Savunese believe is the oldest motif, reminding people of a time before they had cattle and derived their living from the sea. In this example the motif is combined with the white triangle (wo pudi) motif and divided by a black line through the centre and a band of three red and orange lines on either side.

Acquiring this initial piece compelled them to learn more about Indonesian textiles and shortly after, on the advice of friends, they visited bali. Their first visit to the island developed into an annual trip, giving shape and focus to their subsequent collecting activities. By this time Bali had established itself as the centre of an Indonesia-wide trade in textiles, bronzes, gold, silver, terracotta, ceramics and wooden objects servicing both the domestic and international markets.

M o d E S t C o N N o i S S E U r : i N d o N E S i a N t E X t i l E S i N t H E l i V E S

o F J o H N Y U & G E o r G E S o U t t E r

Siobhan Campbell

T

loiN/SHoUldEr ClotH (SeLendAng), SAVU, 60X154 CM,

1970S, COTTON, NATURAL DYES. PHOTO: TIM CONNOLLY

WoMaN’S SaroNG (TAiS feTo), BELU, WEST TIMOR, MID-

20TH C, COTTON, DYES, 59X135 CM. PHOTO: TIM CONNOLLY


While mass tourism was gaining momentum in the same period, the types of objects sold in the antique and art shops in places like Ubud, Kuta, Sanur, Denpasar and Klungkung were not generally within the purview of the average holiday-maker. This was not simply due to the price of old or unusual pieces but to the knowledge required to appreciate the sophistication of some textiles or to purchase pieces showing visible signs of wear.

A case in point is the assortment of vertical runners (lamak) they assembled, narrow cloths which between them showcase most of the textile techniques practiced in Bali including embroidery, couching, appliqué, weft ikat, supplementary weft weaving (songket) and gold-leaf (prada) decoration. Although the designs and techniques are determined by regional and individual style, most cloth lamak are associated with the districts of Jembrana and Buleleng in western and northern Bali. Jembrana is also home to the tradition of embroidered story cloths described by I Made Rai Artha in TAASA Review (Volume 19 No. 4 December 2010) which are also embellished in the same manner as the lamak with sequins,

mica, mirrors, gimp, beads, nylon and cotton fringes.

The more common form of lamak hangings are ephemeral vertical runners of fresh white and green palm leaves or coconut palm plaited or wrapped into geometric patterns inspired by the natural world, representational motifs or combinations of the two. They are made as adornments for altars or shrines or as underlays for offerings. The top of the hanging lies horizontally on the shelf of the shrine and serves as the resting place for offerings, while the lower decorated portion drapes vertically down the front of the shrine. As Brinkgreve explains, a lamak ‘…functions as a real base for offerings, but also, through its decorative function as carrier of the cosmic motifs, as a symbolic base for the exchange between the different layers of the Balinese universe’ (1993:143).

The stylised female figure (cili) with an elongated triangular body, long arms and a fan-shaped headdress appears on many of the cloth versions of lamak collected by John, including as a figure appliquéd onto a base of red cotton cloth. The row of small triangles

HiP ClotH (KAMben), NORTH BALI, MID-19TH C, HANDSPUN COTTON, NATURAL DYES, GOLD THREAD, 102X170 CM. PHOTO: TIM CONNOLLY


SHriNE HaNGiNG (LAMAK), BALI, MID 20TH C, COTTON CLOTH,

COTTON THREAD, SEQUINS, METALLIC THREAD, 21X120 CM.

PHOTO: TIM CONNOLLY

appearing between the rows of flower petals underneath her is also common on lamak and is called the mountain (gunung), relating to Mount Meru, the centre of the universe. A separate panel at the bottom has been executed in supplementary weft weaving (songket) featuring three courtly figures on mounts. The cili figure is often associated with Dewi Sri, the Hindu deity of rice and agriculture, fertility and prosperity, yet may be understood more widely as a symbol of both women and men. This may explain why, on a second example in a supplementary weft pattern, the two small cili standing side by side refer to the newly wed couple (lamak nganten). Although they have an identical feminine form the one on the left is meant to be the woman, the right the man (Brinkgreve 1993: 141). A third example features a central cili figure holding a parasol in each hand, while three little rows of triangles form the bottom half of her skirt. Two smaller figures, mounted on horses, appear on either side of the cili.

The latter have much in common with the many elaborate silk textiles associated with the Balinese royal courts into which patterns are woven with supplementary weft threads (songket), still produced in Balinese villages including Gelgel and Sidemen. John and George collected many examples of these, characterised by their bold colour schemes and sumptuous

use of gold leaf, silk and imported dyes. Some have combinations of songket technique and endek, where the plain coloured weft is resist-dyed, such as in the breast or shoulder cloths (anteng or cerik) from North Bali.

One of the less-widely seen examples from the Balinese textile tradition is a rusty-red hip cloth enriched with metal threads, coarse yarn and a supplementary weft floral decoration of blossoms, shrubs and lozenges in the central panel (fig.4). Cloths like this came to be known by collectors as ‘kain Sembiran’, referring to the name of a North Balinese village, and are possibly a rough interpretation of courtly silk fabrics worked in gold or silver threads. They are most likely the product of a Muslim-Balinese workshop in North Bali (Nabholz-Kartaschoff 2008).

Such professional weaving workshops were located in villages such as Pengastulan, where Muslim-Balinese women created designs that were executed on the loom by Balinese-Hindu women, and traded through Muslim-Balinese traders to Buleleng, and probably further. nabholz-Kartaschoff (2008: 100) identifies their most characteristic feature as the coarse metal thread used as supplementary weft, made with narrow strips of paper, coated with gold leaf wrapped around a thick core. In the second half of the 19th century, when this textile is likely to have been made, the highly valued gold threads would have been imported to Bali through dealers in Singapore.

In common with other collectors of Indonesian textiles, part of the appeal of assembling a collection like this is to appreciate the history of Indonesia as a maritime archipelago. Even though they regard each piece in their collection as a compelling work of art, attributing a sense of identity to the anonymous artists behind their textiles has meant recognising the complex geographic and cultural origins of the pieces.

Their desire to learn more about the communities who created these textiles grew over time, if only for the purpose of classifying their collection, yet this mission was certainly not an ethnographic one in the conventional sense. When George purchased a woman’s sarong (Tais Feto) about 35 years ago, he was fascinated by the figures and the patchwork-like appearance. These arresting raised geometric designs are achieved by a process of winding weft threads around strands of the warp yarns, a technique known as buna by the Atoni language groups of West Timor. This textile comes from Malaka, in the southern half of Belu regency in West Timor (see Yeager & Jacobson 2002: 317). Rebellion in East Timor

in the early 20th century brought refugees to south Belu, including entire villages, who bought their textile motifs and patterns with them, explaining similarities in the cloths of Belu and East Timor.

The dazzling colours on this piece, reflecting the spread of chemical dyes in the 20th century, are dismissed by some connoisseurs for their ‘garish palettes’ and lack of elegance in contrast to older sarongs (Alpert 2013: 261). In nominating this treasured piece we can value the specificity of George and John’s connoisseurship. Not only is there a sense of their individual sensibilities with reference to other collectors, but we can appreciate that as collectors they were not bound by the same considerations and constraints that define institutional collecting strategies. These qualities are characteristic of the membership network of the TAASA community at large, and it is for this reason that this exhibition celebrates the entwined lives of two collectors while acknowledging the larger contributions that private collections make to contesting, enriching and substantiating current understandings of Indonesian textile art.

Encounters with Bali, A Collector’s Journey: Indonesian Textiles from the Collection of Dr John Yu AC and Dr George Soutter AM will be exhibited at the Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney, Saturday 3 May – Sunday 13 July 2014.

Siobhan Campbell recently completed her PhD on

the Forge Collection of Balinese Art at the Australian

Museum in Sydney. She is curating this exhibition

with assistance from the Curatorial Support Initiative,

administered by Museum & Galleries NSW on behalf

of the NSW Government.

rEFErENCESBrinkgreve, Francine (1993). ‘The Woven Balinese Lamak

Reconsidered.’ In Nabholz-kartaschoff, Barnes and Stuart-Fox

(eds). Weaving Patterns of Life. Indonesian Textile Symposium 1991.

Museum of Ethnography, 135-152, Basel.

Duggan, Geneviève (2001). Ikats of Savu: Women Weaving History

in Eastern Indonesia. White Lotus Press, Bangkok.

Nabholz-kartaschoff, Marie-Louise (2008) ‘The Textiles of

Sembiran.’ In Burials, Texts and Rituals: Ethnoarchaeological

Investigations in North Bali, Indonesia. Hauser-Schäublin, & Ardika

(eds). Universitätsverlag Gottingen, Gottingen, 69-117.

Schefold, Reimar in collaboration with Alpert, Steven G. (2013).

Eyes of the Ancestors: The Arts of Island Southeast Asia at the

Dallas Museum of Art. Dallas Museum of Art Publications, Yale

University Press, New Haven.

Yeager, Ruth Marie & Jacobson, Mark Ivan (2002). Textiles of

Western Timor: Regional Variations in Historical Perspective.

White Lotus Press, Bangkok.


mong the many treasures of the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) are some

exceptional works of art that were once held in royal collections in Thailand, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Cambodia. Although acquired for their quality and aesthetic appeal rather than the nobility of their past owners, their royal connections certainly add to the richness of their stories. These diverse works of art range in date from the early 11th to the 20th century and were created in media significant to the cultures and times in which they were made.

One of the most recent acquisitions is an extraordinary six-fold Thai screen. It was created for the Thai royal family around 1862 and is intricately painted on both sides with dramatic scenes from the romance of the handsome prince Inao and his beloved Busaba. The distinctive Thai version of the story, which was inspired by the Javanese Tale of Panji, was interpreted in poetry by King Rama II (r. 1809–1824). It became a popular favourite and was particularly enjoyed by his granddaughter, Queen Somanas (c. 1833–1851). The young queen died shortly after the birth of her only child, a son who lived only a few hours, and the screen is likely to have been commissioned in her memory by her husband King Mongkut, Rama IV (r. 1851–1868).

In 1858 Rama IV requested the building of Wat Somanas Rajavaravihara in Bangkok as a memorial to his queen. Like the screen, the temple features murals illustrating scenes from the Story of Inao. Both were painted at

a time when considerable European influence can be seen in the art of an innovative group of Thai painters who incorporated western perspective, landscapes, architecture and people into their art. Images from the Story of Inao depicted on the screen include elaborate processions of the royal entourage and regalia-filled battles set against recognisable bangkok landmarks such as the Grand Palace and the famous Temple of the Emerald Buddha.

More intimate scenes show Busaba and her companions bathing in a stream, unaware they are being watched by Inao and friends; the launch of a little boat enclosing a miniature figure holding a love message from Inao to Busaba; worshipping and dancing at Buddhist shrines; and numerous instances in which the charming but duplicitous Inao plays tricks to get his own way. The poses and costumes of the figures reflect those used in Thai dance theatre, while the floral border of the screen replicates the designs on textiles created in India and traded to the royal courts of Thailand. The screen was for many years in the collection of Rama V’s brother Prince Bhanurangsi (1859–1928) who held it high regard and posed in front of it for a number of official photographs, including one taken by Bangkok-based German photographer Robert Lenz in 1898.

One royal photograph in the Gallery’s collection, a sensitive portrait of the young Indian Prince Yeshwant Rao Holkar Bahadur and his sister Manorama Raje, has a connection

to one of the NGA’s most renowned and admired installations: its two Brancusi Bird in space sculptures. The hand coloured photograph from around 1918 was probably taken by Gopinath Devare, photographer to the father of the sitters, Maharaja Tukoji Rao III of Indore (now part of Madhya Pradesh).

Yeshwant Rao Holkar (1908–1961) had a passion for international art and architecture and in 1930, while in his early 20s, commissioned a stylish modernist palace for himself known as Manik Bagh, Jewel Gardens. Among the works of art acquired for the palace were three sculptures by Romanian-born artist Constantin Brancusi, each called

r o Y a l a r t i N t H E C o l l E C t i o N o F t H E N a t i o N a l G a l l E r Y o F a U S t r a l i a

Melanie Eastburn

A

L'oiSeAu dAnS L'eSPAce [biRd in SPAce] C.1931 36,

CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI, FRANCE. BLACk MARBLE, WHITE MARBLE,

LIMESTONE, SANDSTONE, 184.0 X 44.0 CM; 193.3 X 51.4 CM.


SKirt ClotH [KaiN PaNJaNG] 1960 69, kANGJENG RADEN TUMENGGUNG HARDJONAGORO, SURAkARTA, JAVA, INDONESIA. COTTON, NATURAL DYES; HAND DRAWN BATIk. 105.5 X 254 CM.



L’oiseau dans l’espace (Bird in space) and created between 1931 and 1936. Two of the works, one in white marble and the other in black, were purchased from the Maharaja’s estate in 1973 for the collection of what would become the National Gallery of Australia, almost a decade before its official opening in 1982. Installed in their own pool, the two elegant Bird in space sculptures are on permanent display in Canberra and Manik Bagh is currently used as the Office of the Commissioner, Customs and Central Excise.

The Gallery has a long-established commitment to Indonesian textiles and in 1984 acquired 126 textiles from the private collection of celebrated Indonesian batik designer Iwan Tirta (1935–2010). As well as creating his own work and playing an instrumental role in the revival of batik as art and fashion in Indonesia in the 1970s and 80s, Iwan Tirta built a large high-quality collection of Indonesian textiles, especially batik, from various periods and created for a range of purposes. Included in the group are a selection of skirt cloths (kain panjang) created by Kangjeng Raden Tumenggung

Hardjonagoro in the 1960s and a number of other textiles created for Indonesia’s courts.

Born Go Tik Swan, (1931–2008), K.R.T. Hardjonagoro was a high-ranking official of Kasunanan Palace, Surakarta (Solo) in central Java. Considered an expert on Javanese arts and culture, and a man of exquisite taste, Hardjonagoro began his career as a dancer. His textile work reinvigorated Javanese batik, drawing on traditional imagery and combining it with vibrant design, a breadth of regional inspirations and strong colour. A particularly bold example of his work, created for royal wear and dyed in one of Surakata’s two palace workshops, is currently on display in the NGA’s Southeast Asian gallery. The skirt cloth features a lively pattern of crowned naga serpents, a symbol of aristocracy, power and fertility in Java.

Also included in the Iwan Tirta collection are a group of enormous ceremonial dodot skirt cloths, including one particularly fine example made in Surakata in the 19th century. The plain white diamond-shaped central field is surrounded by a remarkably intricate gold on indigo design incorporating a plethora of creatures such as scorpions, crickets, beetles, birds, snakes, water snails, crabs, rodents and bats. Each corner displays a pair of wings, a courtly symbol related to the mythical Hindu man-bird, garuda. Such dodot textiles are included in important ceremonies and believed to be auspicious and to provide protection from malevolence. Accordingly, they are worn by Javanese royal couples as part of wedding ritual, as well as by court dancers.

Even more voluminous is a recently purchased Sri Lankan heirloom skirt cloth which is over 4.5 metres long and known as a kukula somana because its central field is surrounded by rooster (kukala) motifs. During the period of the Kandyan kings (1473–1815), textiles of this type were the exclusive preserve of nobility. Occasionally kings presented elements of their own royal dress as a mark of public honour to worthy recipients. Such gifts were not to be worn but were kept as markers of high status. This kukula somana was presented to Velivita Sangharaja Saranankara Maha Thero by King Sri Vijaya Rajasighe (1739–1747) and remained in the Velivita family for over 200 years. It is not certain whether the cloth was made in Sri Lanka or produced along India’s Coromandel coast to appeal to Sri Lankan tastes. While Indian trade textiles are well known and relatively abundant, cloths made in Sri Lanka are considerably rarer and less well documented.

Another magnificent work of art with royal connections in the Gallery’s collection is an 11th century Khmer gilded bronze figure,

generally identified as a representation of the great Hindu god Shiva. While it has a prominent central third eye, a distinctive attribute of Shiva, much of the iconography of the sculpture is enigmatic, making it difficult to determine the identity of the image with certainty. Due in part to the different earrings adorning each ear, the sculpture was earlier described as Harihara, a combination of Shiva and Vishnu usually divided vertically down the centre, with elements of the established iconography of each deity clearly represented. This sculpture is unusual as it doesn’t hold any identifying objects and its headdress, which may have provided clues to identity, is missing. A similar, though much larger, sculpture in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is also dated to the 11th century and has an equally uncertain identity.

An incomplete inscription (registered as K. 1064, Corpus of Khmer Inscriptions, CIK) around the base of the Gallery’s sculpture reads: “....Viralakshmi to the god of the temple. Those who maintain the upkeep of the god of the temple are the people of Prthivindrapura and Prthivindralaya”. This suggests that the sculpture was commissioned by Viralakshmi, the queen of Suryavarman I who ruled from 1002 to 1050. Among the best-known monuments associated with Suryavarman I are Phimeanakas at Angkor Thom and Preah Vihear, a temple dedicated to Shiva, the ownership of which has long been a subject of dispute between Cambodia and Thailand.

The locations of Prthivindrapura and Prthivindralaya have yet to be recorded but with continued scholarly commitment to Khmer art, epigraphy and bronze production sites, it seems likely that they will eventually be revealed, along with the sculpture’s place of manufacture. The gilded image is beautifully modelled, with regal jewellery, a richly embellished skirt cloth (sampot) and extraordinary hair styled in rows punctuated by lines of rosettes. Although the headdress, bow at the back of the sampot, a section of the inscription and the attributes once held are now missing, and the iron rods in the legs have swelled over time, cracking the surrounding bronze, the figure continues to possess considerable presence and magnetism.

Acquired over a period of almost 40 years, it is a great privilege to have these magnificent and varied works of art, created for royal patrons in South and Southeast Asia using bronze, cloth, paper and paint, in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia.

Melanie Eastburn is Curator of Asian art at the

National Gallery of Australia.

SHiVa 1010 50, kHMER PEOPLE, THAILAND OR CAMBODIA.

BRONZE, SILVER AND BLACk GLASS; GLASS INLAY, MERCURY

AMALGAM GILDING, 52.5 X 12.0 X 12.0 CM.



Posing for Posterity. royal indian Portraits

Pramod kumar kG

I.B. Tauris and Roli Books, New Delhi, 2012

RRP USD 55, hard cover, 256 pages

These days, paintings from the former princely states of India are extensively represented in museum holdings around the world but surprisingly few remain with the royal families who had supported the artists over the centuries. The situation is different for photographers the maharajas patronised from the time when the medium first came to India in the mid 19th century. Their photographs have remained largely in royal hands.

The critical time for the princes was in the 1970s when the government of India eliminated their privy purses. To maintain financial viability, they sold whatever they could. Buyers and dealers wanted paintings, decorative art items, and objets de vertu rather than serried piles of browning, fading photographs. So while a maharaja’s processional festival regalia might end up in a museum or even be found on elephants parading in an Australian circus, the photographs of the processions themselves stayed with the rulers.

What was left in India’s royal collections was thus in part determined by the fortunes of taste and the vagaries of art markets. The work of royal photographers was not then much appreciated, apart from the Hyderabad-based photographer Raja Deen Dayal. In contrast, the output of British and European photographers recording Indian subjects was prized. So to our benefit, large royal collections of photographs remained largely untouched and only over the past couple of decades have they begun to come into public view.

One of the people heavily involved in liberating these photographs is Pramod Kumar, author of Posing for Posterity. He has

been associated with the Alkazi Collection of Photography in Delhi and established in 2005 the Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing in Jaipur. Most importantly he curated a path-breaking photographic show, Long Exposure: the Camera at Udaipur, 1857-1957, in a newly restored gallery in the palace at Udaipur in 2009 and has been a key player in assessing, restoring and displaying royal photographic collections elsewhere in India. This magnificent and lavish volume summarises his efforts. It begins with a foreword from the current Rana Mewar, Arvind Singh Mewar, or, as he describes himself, the 76th Custodian, House of Mewar, Udaipur: both a reminder that his is one of the world’s longest surviving royal lineages, and an assertion of his role as custodian of the bulk of the photographs reproduced here.

Kumar follows with a consideration of the role of the portrait in traditional Indian art and in the history of photography on the subcontinent, and discusses its place in princely family life. Much of his 21-page introduction draws on that first Udaipur exhibition. It is followed by over 200 pages of large, gloriously reproduced images which also tap into various princely collections, as well as the V&A, the British Library, other institutions and private collections.

And what treasures are revealed! There is a solitary woman ruler, the Begum of Bhopal, and many male rulers. There are wives in their zenana quarters, children in formal pose, and distinguished visitors at functions and at leisure. They document royal personages in all their dynastic splendour posing in studios in full ceremonial dress, dynastic pomp at its best. Some images catch a fleeting moment, a memory of an occasion – for instance the kill at a game hunt, a shikar. Such kills were not limited to adult men as shown in a portrait of the Maharani of baroda standing rifle in hand over a dead tiger or in an image of three Bikaner princes, not even in their teens, resting their guns on a dead leopard (pp.98 and 99).

Some interesting points emerge from the frequent appearance of photos that have been hand coloured. Two versions of a photo of the Maharaja of Rewa from 1880 side by side in the book (pp.148-9) enable comparison between an original sepia print, and one that has been over painted, re-creating the rich colours of clothing and jewels. The reproduction of

other hand coloured photographs suggests that traditional artists were not immediately replaced by photography and that they continued to have some role in the princely courts. Nevertheless since the photos are portraits privileging the royal families, collectively they convey messages about royal lineages and promote the status and sense of power attaching to royal families as much as they give us an appreciation of the skill of the photographers.

Had such photos been taken by Europeans, the presentation of rajas in magnificent court costume would probably be classed as Orientalist, representing a European fascination for an exoticised India. But these photos were not taken to record the European imperial gaze over a fantasised alien Other. They were made for patrons who wanted depictions of themselves in their daily routine and largely for their own and their friends’ use: here is an Indian gaze taking in what one class of Indians wanted to record of themselves. That what was commonplace and routine for maharajas involved holding court and being with dressed up nobles is another matter.

There is an occasional image in the book that breaks the usual praxis. One is a haunting, cryptic image of the Maharani of Gondal standing but looking down pensively, or sadly, at a book open on a chair beside her (p.119). And there is a self portrait of the Maharaja of Jaipur taken around 1860 which has him at morning worship half naked in the garb of a priest (p.140), a world away from the elaborate dress of other portraits.

This book brings together different elements in a handsomely produced volume that looks like a silver casket, with its solidly silvered page ends. It constitutes a manual for the practice of elite studio photography and illustrates the range of poses favoured by the studios of the day. There is much to enjoy in the volume, though it is a pity it has neither a table of contents nor an index. Without them, tracing a particular lineage through the pages becomes a chore as is trying to follow the work of particular photographers.

Jim Masselos is Honorary Reader in History at the

University of Sydney.

B o o K r E V i E W: P H OTO G R A P H I N G I N D I A’ S P R I N C E S

Jim Masselos

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TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 3 N O . 1

TAASA TEXTILE STUDY GROUP, SYDNEYDoes the Devil wear black?13 November 2013In this talk, Marianne Hulsbosch investigated where the concept of white is good and black is evil originated and how this manifested in Ambon, a remote island east of the Indonesian archipelago. Portuguese Jesuit missionaries and the Dutch Protestant ministers who arrived there in 1599 introduced their own clothing systems, using dress as a symbol of social, cultural and economic control.

The oppressive and restricting black dress adopted by the indigenous people was in stark contrast with the fashionable gaily-coloured summer cotton dresses and white suits of the Europeans who lived there: a visual separation enforced by colonial attitudes. The presentation generated a lively discussion to finish the evening.

TAASA END OF YEAR PARTY, SYDNEY4 December 2013TAASA’s Sydney end-of-year party was held at the Korean Cultural Office in Elizabeth Street, Sydney by kind invitation of Director Dong-Ok Lee. Over 80 members enjoyed a convivial evening which included a short performance of traditional Korean songs and Korean drums by Hyung-sik Shin and

viewing entries for the first Korean-Australia Arts Foundation Arts Prize.

Gill Green, TAASA President, welcomed members to this popular annual event which rounded off the varied program for the year. TAASA is grateful for the assistance of Juno Do, Exhibition and Program Manager at the KCO.

TAASA VICTORIA END OF YEAR PARTY, MELBOURNE5 December 2013It was a full house for TAASA Victoria’s end-of-year party at the elegant new premises of The Joshua McClelland Print Room at Rathdowne Galleries in North Carlton. Mrs Joan McClelland and her daughters Trish Williams and Philippa Kelly hosted TAASA members and guests, and we enjoyed viewing the fascinating range of contemporary and antique pieces on view.

Mrs McClelland, who as most members would know has been a passionate advocate for Asian art in Melbourne for more than 60 years, spoke about some of her favourite ceramics on display. We were also pleased to honour her recent 100th birthday with a special toast. Thanks to Mrs McClelland, Trisha Williams and Philippa Kelly for a generous and enjoyable opportunity to celebrate the finish of the year.

30

r E C E N t t a a S a a C t i V i t i E StaaSa MEMBErS ’ d iarY

M A R C H - M AY 2 0 1 4

Guided Tour – Encounters with Bali: A Collector’s Journey24 May 2014, Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney2.30 pm Walkthrough with Collector Dr John Yu and Curator Siobhan Campbell.

14 – 15 June Excursion to CanberraA Canberra event is being organised for TAASA members which will include curator led tours of two exhibitions at the NGA and other activities. More details to come but put these dates in your diary!

TAASA IN VICTORIAGuided tour of the Chinese Museum, Cohen Place, Melbourne.Saturday 22 March 2014, 10.30am – 11.45am.Followed by lunch at 12.00 in Chinatown.Cost for museum tour $10, $8 concession. Further details will be sent to members shortly. For more information contact Boris Kaspiev: vic.taasa@gmail or 0421 038 491

TAASA TEXTILE STUDY GROUPWednesday 12 March, 6-8pmPLC Room Powerhouse Museum, SydneyA Tale of Two Cities: Modernity and its expression in early 20th century textiles in SE Asia: A number of intriguing textiles dated to the early 20th C depict symbols of modernity – buildings, cars, bicycles among them. They are found on batik from Java, and on tie dyes from Cambodia – two regions some 2000km apart. In this presentation, Gill Green will explore their origins and interrelationships.Details of TSG meetings planned for 9 April and 7 May will be circulated when available.

TAASA CERAMICS STUDY GROUPTuesday 11 March 2014, 6-8pmHigh Tech Seminar room, F20, COFA, Oxford St Paddington Sydney.

An exploration of Vietnam’s Ly and Tran ceramics (1009-1400) in their historical context. The focus of this talk by Kerry Nguyen-Long will be glazed ceramics made in the Ly and Tran which in form and motif are very much a product of their cultural milieu and on that account distinctive to this period. The talk will cover the physical features of these ceramics, supported with illustrated examples. Members are invited to bring Vietnamese ceramic pieces to share and discuss.Refreshments provided. $15 members, $20 non members. RSVP: Margaret White at [email protected].

TAASA IN QUEENSLAND

Current and former TAASA Queensland members and QAGOMA curatorial staff welcomed TAASA President Gill Green to an afternoon tea held on 19 January, to launch a calendar of Brisbane events for the year ahead. The 2014 calendar is currently being finalised, including visits and handling sessions with interstate dealers and Asian art specialists, artist talks at leading commercial galleries, invitations to view and handle some special private Brisbane collections and special advanced invitations to related public programs at QAGOMA. Please contact James MacKean for more information at: [email protected].

TAASA AGM and TAASA Oration14 May 2014, 6-8pm, COFA, Paddington, Sydney

Following a brief AGM, Professor David Christian, Department of Modern History, Macquarie University, will present TAASA’s inaugural Oration, an annual event initiated to introduce distinguished speakers and provide a forum for their ideas and projects. Prof. Christian’s research area covers Inner Eurasia (Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia). He is Director of the Big History Institute at Macquarie University and co-founder with Bill Gates of the Big History Project, an ambitious attempt to bringing together the knowledge available in many different scholarly disciplines. Members will be sent full details closer to the date.

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A S E L E C T I V E R O U N D U P O F E X H I B I T I O N S A N D E V E N T S

Compiled by Tina Burge

aCt

Garden of the East: photography in

indonesia 1850s–1940s

21 February - 22 June 2014

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Over 200 works including many new acquisitions will be on view in this first art museum survey of the development of photographic art in Southeast Asia. The exhibition includes a wide array of formats of 19th and early 20th century photography: from miniature cartes de visite to panoramas and massive presentation albums of commercial views; handmade family albums and illustrated books. Garden of the East includes work by the pioneer, mostly European, photographers in Indonesia such as Walter Woodbury and Isidore van Kinsbergen. It also has a special focus on works by Javanese professional, Kassian Céphas, the first indigenous photographer of note.

Events in association with the exhibition include:1 March 2:00 pm, Curator’s perspective: Gael Newton, Senior Curator Photography and exhibition curator will outline her approach to the exhibition.20 March, 12:45 pm, Japanese woodblock prints: Dr Olivia Meehan, Lecturer, Art History, ANU, speaks about Yoshitoshi’s series of bijin-ga, or pictures of beautiful women, Thirty-two aspects of customs and manners (1888).4 May 2:30 pm: Auslan sign–interpreted tour of Garden of the East.6 May 12:45 pm, Indonesian photographer, Kassian Céphas (1845–1912): Gael Newton discusses his remarkable career. Free.18 May 1:30 pm: Traditional Indonesian dance performance supported by the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia. June 14 -15: Borobodur to Bali, a special events weekend for 'Garden of the East’ and 'Finding your place in the world: recent contemporary Asian photomedia’. Curator tours, talks and screenings. Saturday 14 June, seminar day with FX Harsono and Alex Supartono, Indonesian scholar on historical perspectives. Saturday afternoon - TAASA members’ reception.For more information go to: www.nga.gov.au

NSW

afghanistan: hidden treasures from the

National Museum, Kabul

7 March – 15 June 2014

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

During the turmoil that followed the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the rise of the Taliban in 1996, the director and curators of the National Museum in Kabul risked their lives to keep the museum’s most precious objects from being destroyed. These were secreted in the central bank vaults at the presidential palace, with multiple keys given to a few brave custodians, known as ‘key-holders’. The surviving treasures date from 2200BCE to 200AD, and include important archaeological finds from four significant Silk Route sites. Among the precious objects are Bronze Age gold pieces; hundreds of ancient coins; and the famous ‘Bactrian hoard’, a collection of some 20,000 gold, silver, and ivory artefacts from burial plots at Tillya Tepe in northern Afghanistan.

In the lecture series across three Saturdays from 22 March to 5 April archaeologists and museum experts discuss important ethical and practical issues raised by the exhibition.

Khadim ali - the Haunted lotus

6 March – 1 June 2014

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

In association with Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures, AGNSW has commissioned the Afghani-Australian artist Khadim

Ali to represent the contemporary art of Afghanistan. His work considers familial ties, the Hazara people and culture, and the emergence of a lawless society in Afghanistan. In addition to these social issues, Khadim Ali revisits recurrent themes in his work, such as the construction of morality (good and evil) and ethnic, racial and religious fanaticism. The exhibition is comprised of new works including handmade carpets (woven in Kabul), photographs, drawings, video and miniature paintings.For further information go to: www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

ViCtoria

Wang Gongxin, Video artist

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

11 April – 28 September 2014

The exhibition features three large scale immersive video works from Beijing born artist Wang Gongxin. Initially trained as a socialist-realist style oil painter, he began to produce video art in 1993 and is credited as one of the first artists to have created a site-specific video installation in China in the mid-1990s. As a first generation Chinese video artist, Wang Gongxin has commented that his concerns are ‘social’ and concerned with political and social issues, as well as history and tradition. For further information go to: www.ngv.vic.gov.au

Stars of the tokyo stage:

Natori Shunsen’s kabuki actor prints

8 May – 28 June 2014

RMIT Gallery, Melbourne

The prints reveal the dynamic world of Japan’s kabuki theatre through superb actor portraits created by artist Natori Shunsen (1886–1960) in the 1920s and 30s. A selection of kabuki robes from the NGA’s recently acquired collection from a Japanese theatre company illustrates the extravagance of this theatrical form. The exhibition will return to the NGA from 19 July- 12 October 2014.For more information go to: www.rmit.edu.au/rmitgallery

THe HAunTed LoTuS, kHADIM ALI, 2013. GOUACHE,

INk AND GOLD LEAF ON PAPER. COPYRIGHT THE ARTIST.

COURTESY MILANI GALLERY, BRISBANE.

Review_23_1_2014_March

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