Скачать книгу

(Semarang or Lasem), second half 19th century. Chinese wedding procession (Arak-arakan Pengantin Cina).

      Towards the end of the 19th century, batik was often made in the Pesisir area to commemorate special events. In the case of Chinese weddings, the fabrics were used as wedding gifts, presented by the family of the groom to the bride. At the top and bottom of this cloth, a joyful procession accompanies the young couple as the bride is taken from her family house to the house of the groom. Men are shown holding flags, banners and lanterns, and there are scores of musicians. The actual wedding ceremony is presented in the center of the cloth, inside a series of pavilions. From left to right, in their respective family houses, the bride and groom undergo a series of rituals and are dressed in elaborate wedding costumes. The next pavilion features the newlyweds, sitting opposite each other at a table, marking their union by eating a ritual dish. In the following scene, they pray at the ancestral pavilion. In the last building, probably the final stage of the wedding, the newlyweds serve tea to the family elders. The people standing behind the bride and groom are the ritual minders whose duty it is to make sure that all elements of this important ceremony are conducted in the correct way.

Image

      24 Sarong, Pekalongan, late 19th–early 20th century.

      Batik sarongs made by Indo-European workshops for the colonial market in Java included depictions of famous fairytales, such as this one showing the story of Cinderella. The bottom half of the badan features, from right to left, the two ugly sisters, the stepmother and Cinderella. In the upper half is a clock, the prince holding Cinderella’s shoe and the heroine, running away with one foot bare. The kepala presents the happy ending, where the prince and Cinderella are united under an oversized floral arrangement. The background has been densely covered with intricate filler motifs (tanahan). The sarong would probably have been made for a young Indo-European woman.

Image

      25 Kain, probably made in an Arab workshop in Pekalongan, early 20th century.

      The minarets that frame the two arch-like structures, probably mosques, as well as the fact that the faces of all human beings have been disguised with bird-like features, suggest that this cloth was made in one of the Arab workshops in the Pesisir area. In the late 1920s, there were 130 batik workshops on Java run by members of the Arab Peranakan community. Different modes of transport, from hand-drawn to motor-propelled, are also depicted.

Image

      26 Sarong, probably made in an Arab workshop in Pekalongan, early 20th century.

      The faces of all the living beings—humans, birds, dogs and even a horse—depicted in this rural scene have been disguised in some way. Some have been turned into floral-like forms. This feature, as well as the large bouquet of flowers, suggests that the cloth was produced in Pekalongan, in one of the many batik workshops run by Indonesian Arabs.

Image

      27 Sarong, made in the Masina family workshop, Trusmi, near Cirebon, late 19th century.

      Whereas in Central Java a sarong is considered to be an everyday garment for commoners, in West Java it is also worn by the nobility. The motifs on this sarong indicate that it was made for a member of the Kesepuhan or Kanoman Sultanates of Cirebon. The badan features the penganten design, the wings of the mythical bird Garuda, known as sawat in Central Java, which was traditionally reserved for use by the Javanese nobility. Other important symbols are the tree of life, snakes (probably the serpent Naga) and mountains (Mount Meru, the abode of Hindu gods). The main motifs are connected by a network of small sprouting plants and tendrils, in Central Java known as semen (“to grow”, “to sprout”), which support life forces and assure prosperity. The kepala features an intricate patchwork-like tumpal design composed of different sized triangles (see also pages 80–1, 84–5). The batik decoration is of the latar putih (white background) type, whereby a layer of wax was applied to the background prior to the dyeing process, leaving only the outlines of the motifs uncovered. Technically, it is a very complex and time-consuming way of wax drawing that requires high manual dexterity and experience.

Image

      28 Sarong, Pesisir area, early 20th century.

      The rooster, the most popular bird of Java, is the hero of this batik, which may have been made for a devotee of cock-fighting. The badan is filled with thousands of tiny dots (cocohan) (see also pages 78–9). This effect has been achieved by pricking the layer of wax with a set of fine needles, and is typical of batik made in Lasem, Indramayu and, occasionally, Cirebon.

Image

      29 Sarong, probably Lasem, ca. 1890.

      Swallows appear quite frequently on Pesisir batik, usually presented as a schematic bird figure. However, the decoration on this cloth is quite exceptional as it presents the birds in a multitude of positions—in various stages of flight and resting among curved plant stems. The brownish-red color is known as ungon and results from the overdyeing of indigo and mengkudu red.

Image

      30 Sarong, probably Cirebon, ca. 1860–1880.

      This is probably another batik associated with one of the Cirebon royal courts (kraton) (see pages 72–3). While it maintains the classic sarong composition, its badan has been decorated with motifs usually associated with the courts of Central Java, such as lar, the wing of the mythical bird Garuda. A dense and elaborate network of plant tendrils covers the background of the whole cloth. The execution of this sarong required great manual skill as the wax had to cover all areas except the outlines of the motifs.

Image

      31 Sarong, made in a Chinese workshop, probably Lasem, 1870–1880.

      The badan of sarongs made in the 1880s in Lasem were often decorated with repetitive geometric designs, usually in the form of stars, crosses, rosettes, lozenges or polygons. On this sarong, the tumpal and pinggir feature carnations while the two papan have been filled with dragons, a mythical serpent (Naga) and probably a centipede, the latter symbolizing protection. The background of the whole cloth has been decorated with thousands of tiny dots (cocohan) (see pages 74–5).

Image

      32 Sarong, made in a Chinese workshop, Pesisir area, 1900–1910.

      This sarong features a typical Pesisir motif, ganggeng or floating seaweed, yet included among the animals within it are mythical Chinese creatures, such as dragons with four claws and dragon-headed fish.

Image

      33 Sarong, Pesisir area, ca. 1880.

      The badan of this cloth has been decorated with a lung-lungan design of fantastic birds and exuberant flowers, a typical Javanese rendition of Indian chintz. Dark colors indicate that the cloth was made for an older person. The thousands of tiny dots (cocohan) present in the tumpal, papan and pinggir sections indicate that the cloth was made in one of the workshops of Lasem, Cirebon or Indramayu.

Скачать книгу