VO LU M E 2 2 N O.

2 J U N E 2 0 1 3

the journal of
the asian arts society
of australia

TAASA Review
TRADE AND CULTURE

c o n t en t s
Volume 22 No. 2 June 2013

3 Ed itor ial : TR ADE A N D CULT UR E

TAA S A R E V I E W

Jim Masselos and Charlotte Galloway

EAST OF INDIA FO R G OT T E N T R ADE W I T H AU ST R AL IA AT T H E AUS TRALIA N

THE ASIAN ARTS SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA INC.

Abn 64093697537 Vol. 22 No. 2, June 2013
ISSN 1037.6674

NATION AL MARITIME MU SEU M

Michelle Linder

FIRST ENC OUN T ER S : T H E P ORT U GU ESE I N J A PA N

Olivia Meehan

10

MEDALLION PATT ER NS AT A NGKOR WAT A ND ALCH I ( LADA K H ): S H ARE D M E A N I N G S

Gill Green

13

C ULT URAL P OLITICS : BATI K A ND WAYA NG I N I NDO NES IA A N D M ALAY S IA

Marshall Clark

16

UN LIKELY C ONN ECTIONS : T H E MA KA SSA NS, T H E YOLN G U A N D T H E D UTC H

Ingo Voss, VossDesign

EAS T IN DIES C O MPA NY

p ri n t i ng

James Bennett

John Fisher Printing

e di torI A L email: editorial@taasa.org.au

Josefa Green (convenor) Tina Burge

Melanie Eastburn Sandra Forbes Charlotte Galloway
William Gourlay Marianne Hulsbosch
Jim Masselos Ann Proctor Sabrina Snow
Christina Sumner
desi gn/ l ayou t

18 A PAIR OF 19TH CENT U R Y CO MPA NY PAINTI NGS F RO M PATN A AT T H E

NATION AL GALL ER Y O F VI CTORIA

Carol Cains

Published by The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc.

PO Box 996 Potts Point NSW 2011
www.taasa.org.au
Enquiries: admin@taasa.org.au

21 T HE SP READ OF I NDIA N R ELI GIOU S BELI EF S : A F IRST C E N T UR Y B UR M E S E S T E L E

Pamela Gutman

TAASA Review is published quarterly and is distributed to members

of The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc. TAASA Review welcomes

23 LAUNC H OF TAA SA SYD NEY CERA MI CS ST U DY GRO U P, 4 A PRIL 2 0 1 3

General editor, Josefa Green

pub l i c at i ons c ommi t t ee

Registered by Australia Post. Publication No. NBQ 4134

John Millbank

submissions of articles, notes and reviews on Asian visual and

performing arts. All articles are refereed. Additional copies and
subscription to TAASA Review are available on request.

24 IN THE P UBLIC DO MAIN: T R A DE CE R A MI CS I N T HE AGN S W

No opinion or point of view is to be construed as the opinion of

Jackie Menzies

The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc., its staff, servants or agents.

25

BOO K REVIEW: CHI N E S E E XPO R T CE R A MI CS

Review as a result of material published within its pages or

Jackie Menzies

26

C OLLEC TOR S C H OICE : A CO LLE CT I O N O F F I LI PI N O S A N TO S

Pamela Walker with Ron Walker

No claim for loss or damage will be acknowledged by TAASA

in other material published by it. We reserve the right to alter
or omit any article or advertisements submitted and require
indemnity from the advertisers and contributors against damages
or liabilities that may arise from material published.
All reasonable efforts have been made to trace copyright holders.

27 ARMC HAIR TRAV EL TO TAASAS AGM

TAA S A M E M B E R S H I P RAT E S

Sandra Forbes

28

BOO K REVIEW: A R T S O F V I E T N A M

Ann Proctor

29 R EC ENT TAAS A ACTI VITIES

29 TAASA Membe r s D iar y: J UN E 2013 - AUGUS T 2013
31

W HAT S ON IN AU STRALIA : J UN E 2013 - AUGUS T 2013

Compiled by Tina Burge

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Landing [waler] horses from Madras, Attributed to J. B. East c. 1834 (detail).

Reproduced courtesy Dixson Collection State Library of New South Wales. See pp4-6.

A fu ll In d ex of ar ticles pub l ishe d in TAASA R e view s ince i t s beg i nni ngs

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TAA S A c o mm i t t ee

E DITORIAL : T R A D E and C U L T U R E

G i ll Gr een President

Jim Masselos and Charlotte Galloway

Art historian specialising in Cambodian culture

A NN PROC TOR Vice President

Art historian with a particular interest in Vietnam

To dd Sund er man TR EASUR E R

Former Asian antique dealer, with a particular interest

in Tibetan furniture
Dy Andr eas en SECR ETARY

Has a special interest in Japanese haiku and tanka poetry

Hwei-fe n cheah

Visiting Fellow, School of Cultural Inquiry, Australian

National University.
M at t 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
Jo sefa Gr een

General editor of TAASA Review. Collector of Chinese

ceramics, with long-standing interest in East Asian
art as student and traveller
ANN GUILD

Former Director of the Embroiders Guild (UK)

MIN-JUNG KIM

Curator of Asian Arts & Design at the Powerhouse Museum

Yuk ie S ato

Former Vice President of the Oriental Ceramic Society of

the Philippines with wide-ranging interest in Asian art
and culture
SUSAN SC OLLAY

Is an 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.

It was common in the 19th and 20th centuries

to point out that trade followed the flag. The
aphorism went some way in explaining the
nature of empires and what happened under
their sway. It did little though to acknowledge
the intricacies of regional trade and cultural
interactions that had been taking place for
millennia.
This issue of the TAASA Review focuses on the
way in which local art and culture responded
to the influences which came through trade,
both inter-regional and international. Perhaps
our concerns can set up another aphorism:
culture follows trade. In general the articles
examine the spread of cultures, belief
systems, and their arts as they piggybacked
on the extensive trade networks that provided
contacts between different parts of Asia.
While the arts did not drive trade they were
an ancillary in its movement, as trade carried
new objects, novel designs and new kinds of
perceptions and beliefs from one part of this
vast region to another.
Summarising the endeavour of this issue is
the East of India exhibition at the Maritime
Museum in Sydney. Through her discussion
of the multiplicity of interactions on display,
Michelle Linder outlines the connections
between India under the sway of the East
India Company and the Australian colonies in
the first half of the 19th century, an interaction
little acknowledged in our national history.

CHRI STIN A SUMN ER

Principal Curator, Design and Society,

Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
M argar et 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 ep r esen t a t i ves
Australian Capital Territory
M ela nie Eastbu r n

Curator of Asian Art, National Gallery of Australia

Queensland
Russel l Stor er

Curatorial Manager, Asian and Pacific Art,

Queensland Art Gallery
South Australia
James Bennett

Curator of Asian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia

Victoria
Ca ro l C ains

Curator Asian Art, National Gallery of Victoria International

That the East India Company had a profound

impact upon the territories it dominated
is shown in Carol Cains discussion of
Company painting, works commissioned by
Company officials in India. In the days before
photography, Company personnel employed
local artists to record the sites and society
of the strange and different place they were
ruling. The artists produced a European and
Indian mlange of forms - and a distinctive
new body of work.
Trade provided pathways for the movement
of Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam and their
associated artefacts for centuries before the
arrival of European traders. Indian beliefs
were carried to Southeast Asia through trade
and exchange networks from as early as
the beginnings of the common era. Pamela
Gutman discusses the earliest evidence
of this transfer and how these beliefs
were reinterpreted in the local context by
examining a two-faced stele from Sri Ksetra
in Burma. Nearly 1000 years ago, according
to Gill Green, similar interactions are implied

by the existence of common decorative

patterns based on Indian trade textiles, which
provided the background for both Buddhist
and Hindu narratives on statues and walls
in Himalayan Alchi and Cambodian Angkor
respectively.
Well established patterns of sea trade
amongst Asian countries also existed in
relation to ceramics, such as the so-called
Nanhai or Southern Seas trade, long before
Western traders entered the lucrative market
in the 1500s. Jackie Menzies provides an
overview of this movement of goods, using
the standing display of trade objects in the Art
Gallery of NSW.
With the Europeans, first the Portuguese, and
then the Dutch, British, Spanish, Danish and
French, came an equally radical, if different,
metaphysic. Olivia Meehan discusses the
rapid but short-term impact of the Portuguese
on Japanese narrative art forms and Pamela
and Ron Walker in their account of Filipino
Santos, present marvellously fresh Christian
images re-imagined within a distinctive
Asian context.
James Bennett explores holdings in the
Art Gallery of South Australia to illustrate
how trading relationships expose the
cultural interests of each party. In the case
of foreign trade with Indonesia, the Dutch
were interested in gold and weaponry,
while Indigenous Australians enmeshed the
Indonesian fishermen and trepang trade into
their histories through bark painting.
Globalisation and transnational interchange
are clearly not just a recent construct.
However, in a contemporary world with
delineated
geo-political
boundaries,
ownership of cultural symbols becomes an
often vexed issue. As Marshall Clark points
out, the rivalry between Indonesia and
Malaysia over batik and wayang kulit (shadow
puppet theatre) traditions demonstrates the
significant role visual culture and tradition
play in creating national identity.
These articles offer insight into some of the
ways trading interactions through Asia have
influenced visual culture both within the
region and internationally. We are reminded
that across Asia, culture is a dynamic entity
and that this is central to its vibrancy and
diversity. Yet like so much of matters Asian
no single explanatory framework seems able
to cover all of the complexity and the riches of
this vast continent.
3

EAST OF INDIA FORGOTTEN TRADE WITH AUSTRALIA

AT T H E A U S TRALIA N N ATIO N AL M ARITI M E M U S E U M
Michelle Linder
Loss of the Guardian, Robert Dodd Engraving 1790, 843 x 717mm. ANMM Collection

I am a tailor, I complain of general bad

treatment, bad and insufficient food; Mrs
Browne agreed to give me as much as I
could eat; I came from India with her; she
has not given me as much as I could eat;
I know nothing of the agreement I entered
into, of the particulars of it, I was turned on
board ship without going to the police office;
I desired to be returned to my own country;
I have been so ill used by Mr Browne, I will
remain no longer with him, if he would give
me the best dish I could eat, I would not stop
with him; this country does not suit me;
I was coaxed to come here, being told that I
should have all the privileges I should have
in my own country.
his testimony was made by Meer Jaun
to a Special Bench of Magistrates on 10
July 1819. He was one of 35 domestic servants
and labourers brought to Australia to work
in Sydney around 1812. Many of the servants
made claims of mistreatment. An inquiry
was held on orders from Governor Lachlan
Macquarie and most of the servants were
returned to India on the ship Mary owned by
William Browne, their employer, in 1819.

The dramatic testimony given by Meer Juan

and his fellow country men and women contain
allegations of violence, starvation and religious
or cultural deprivations. In the exhibition East
Of India Forgotten Trade With Australia at the
Australian National Maritime Museum in
Sydney, actors from two Sydney based Indian
arts companies, Abhinay School of Performing
Arts Inc and Nautanki Theatre, will record a
selection of these testimonies to enable visitors
to hear the perspectives of the servants who
worked in Australia. We hope to provide visitors
with insight into the lives of the sailors, servants,
settlers, soldiers and merchants that travelled
between India and Australia in the first 70 years
of European settlement, and to share stories of
an often forgotten trade.
To understand the links between the new
colony and India, my co-curator Dr Nigel
Erskine and I provide visitors with a brief
explanation of early European interactions
with Asia. Visitors then encounter in more
detail the history of the English East India
Company from its founding in 1600 to its
demise in 1857 as background to the story of
the Australian connection with India.

Following Vasco Da Gamas discovery of

the seaway from Europe to India in 1498, the
Portuguese dominated exploration and trade
with Asia for the next century. Highlights of
the exhibitions introductory area include a rare
manuscript map by Evert Gijsbertz showing
what Europeans knew about Africa and Asia
at the end of the 16th century. The area where
Northern Australia exists is a place of great
wealth marked as Beach. On loan from the
Dixson Map Collection in the State Library of
New South Wales, the watercolour and ink map
has a richly decorated border and group scenes
showing cartouches, flags, compass roses and
inscriptions in Dutch and Portuguese.
A portable drop-front cabinet with Mughal
design elements from the Victoria and Albert
Museum is an example of the furniture traded
in both India and Europe. It was made by
Indian craftsmen for European customers
to store personal effects. By the end of the
16th century the Portuguese were being
challenged by merchant companies from
England and the Netherlands. The Dutch were
based in Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia)
and the English East India Company had
consolidated its power in India.
The East India Company rose from being a
relatively small player in the Asian trading
world to become the ruler of India, controlling
over a fifth of the worlds population. The
Company was granted a Royal Charter
by Queen Elizabeth 1 in 1600. Its Court

of Directors met weekly in their London

headquarters and controlled all aspects of
the companys shipping trade and finance.
Territories under Company rule were named
Presidencies and were administered by a
governor (or president) based in one of the
Presidency towns: Bombay (now Mumbai),
Madras (Chennai) or Calcutta (Kolkata).
English artists George Lambert (17001765) and Samuel Scott (1700-1772) were
commissioned to record various local
scenes. Two of their works that hung in East
India House (the London headquarters of
the EIC) for over a century are displayed
in this exhibition. Lambert painted the
grand warehouses, wharves and churches
constructed in Bombay and Calcutta, while
Scott, a marine artist, concentrated on the
ships used to transport the vast array of goods
exported from India to Europe.
East Indiamen were the European ships that
traded into Asia. They were the largest cargo
carriers of their day, built to high standards
and heavily armed to protect their precious
cargoes. Indian textiles had been traded for
centuries within Asia and employees of the
EIC found an established industry of weavers,
fabric painters and block printers in India.
Textiles exported from India proved so popular
they became a major import to Britain and a
source of wealth for the East India Company
and the merchants working under licence.
The Powerhouse Museum, Sydney has lent

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

Anna Kings Evening Dress, c. 1805. Indian muslin.

Collection of the National Trust of Australia (NSW).
Photo: Andrew Frolows

a wide range of textiles: from a block printed

sarong made for the Indonesian market in the
19th century to wall-hangings featuring treeof-life designs, intricately woven shawls and
plainer outfits worn by convicts and settlers.
An evening dress made in Australia in 1805
for Anna Josepha King (the wife of Governor
King) from imported Indian muslin is one of
the oldest surviving examples of clothing in
Australia and is borrowed from the National
Trust of Australia (NSW).
We tell the story of the resistance and conflict
encountered by the EIC in the wealthy
kingdom of Mysore in southern India. A
ceramic sculpture from the Victoria and Albert
Museum shows Lieutenant Hugh Monro being
fatally mauled by a Bengal tiger. It was inspired
by the famous life-sized automaton depicting
the same tragedy that Tipu Sultan, the ruler of
Mysore and the EICs fiercest enemy, had made
to amuse himself. We are also incorporating
the V&As app of Tipus Tiger, for visitors
to download to see the automaton in action
on screen. The defeat of Tipu Sultan at the
battle of Seringapatam in 1799 was met with
jubilation in Britain and his personal items
were much sought after by British collectors.
A beautiful sword covered with his tiger-stripe

emblem and bejewelled tiger eyes is displayed

alongside a quiver and arrows that were
allegedly taken from his bedroom and later
presented to King George III.
Satirical cartoons published in London between
1788 and 1813 focus on the pressures faced by
the Company of Directors in England and India.
Critics of the EIC believed too many resources
were being directed to the military control of
India. They wanted the Company to focus
on the accumulation of profits for investors
through trade. The East India Company lost
its monopoly on trade with India and China
in 1813 and 1833 respectively, allowing new
traders to enter the market. When Indian troops
rebelled against the British in 1857, bloody
uprisings were ignited throughout India and
these ultimately led to the downfall of the East
India Company. The British government took
over from the EIC ending 200 years of influence
and control. A small section of the exhibition
focuses on the events of 1857. A striking
chromolithograph of the Indian warrior queen,
the Rani of Jhansi, photographs by Felice Beato
and a Victoria Cross medal awarded to a British
soldier who went on to settle in Australia are
displayed alongside other items, to interpret
the bloody conflict for visitors.

The Death of Munrow, ceramic figure, glazed earthenware, Staffordshire c. 1830, 34.9cm (L). Victoria and Albert Museum, London

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

Indian cabinet, 17th century, Western India , wood, inlaid wood, brass and ivory with metal lock

Vase, Maker Barr, Flight & Barr c. 1830, porcelain,

plate and handle, 16.2cm (H), 27.4cm (W), 19.6cm (D) Victoria and Albert Museum, London

34.9cm (H) Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The second half of the exhibition brings the

visitor to the colony of NSW. The Guardian
was the first ship bound for Port Jackson after
the First Fleet, carrying food, livestock and
other essentials for the fledgling colony. When
it struck an iceberg off the Cape of Good
Hope in 1789, all the supplies and most of the
people onboard were lost. Merchants in India
lobbied to supply the now-starving colony.
When the Third Fleet arrived in Sydney
from England, it brought Governor Phillip
the news that he was permitted to develop
trade with India, previously restricted by the
EICs monopolistic charter. It was the loss of
the Guardian that effectively kick started the
trading relationship between Australia and
India. The Atlantic was sent from Sydney to
Bengal in 1791 to collect supplies, returning
with a cargo of rice, putrid pork, scrawny
cattle and newspapers from Calcutta.
Merchants such as William Bampton and
Robert Campbell were quick to follow the
Atlantic and began shipping goods from India
to the new colony. Robert Campbell went on
to become the wealthiest merchant in Sydney.
Approximately 100 ships arrived from India
between 1813 and 1833, while over 250 ships
left for India from Sydney or Hobart in the
same time period. Many convict transports
unloaded their human freight in Australia
and then continued to India to collect a cargo
to ship to Europe. The profit was made on
the Indian cargo collected on the last leg
of the journey. Typical imports from India
to Australia included candles, soap, sugar,
rice, tea, Chinese ceramics, shoes, rum,
cotton textiles, clothing, tobacco, leather,
canvas, rope and general household goods.
Finding suitable exports proved a challenge
for merchants. Timber, sealskins, whale oil,
coal and sandalwood were some of the first

Australian exports to India. From the 1830s

onwards, horses bred in Australia were
regularly exported to India and used by the
military; these Australian horses came to be
known as walers. Visitors are able to follow
the journeys of three different ships involved
in the horse trade in an interactive display.
The journey between India and Australia was
hazardous and two routes were taken according
to the season. Vessels could sail north through
the hazardous, little-charted Coral Sea or inside
the Great Barrier Reef, then west through
Torres Strait and on to the Bay of Bengal, sailing
south of Java. The preferred route was south of
Australia and then north into the Bay of Bengal,
but during winter, strong westerly winds often
made this route unviable. Matthew Flinders
began the work of charting safe shipping
routes, but it was Phillip Parker King who
carried out detailed mapping of the Australian
coast between 1817 and 1822. A small selection
of artefacts retrieved from the remains of the
ships Mermaid, HMS Porpoise, Cato and Royal
Charlotte lost in the Great Barrier Reef and Coral
Sea en route to India are displayed. Since 2009
the Museums maritime archaeology program
has focused on shipwrecks associated with
colonial trade to India.
The exhibition tells the diverse stories of
settlers who came to Australia from India
in a series of small showcases with one
object, photograph or document pertaining
to each settler. Case studies include Private
James Dwyer of the 40th regiment, who
was transported to Australia for seven years
after striking a superior officer; Madhoo, an
Indian labourer brought to Sydney as part of
an organised migration scheme, and Captain
Andrew Barclay who settled in Tasmania after a
lifetime serving the East India Company at sea.

The exhibition concludes with a short film Indian

Aussies: Terms and Conditions Apply. Anupam
Sharma led the team at Film and Casting Temple
at Moore Park, directing and producing an
informative, humorous and dynamic short film
focused on the current connections between
India and Australia. A diverse range of Indian
Australians have been interviewed about their
experiences and perceptions of the relationship
between our two countries. The film production
is a novel approach for the museum and a very
exciting innovation.
East of India Forgotten Trade with Australia is
on display from 1 June until 18 August 2013.
Over 300 objects from the collections of the
Australian National Maritime Museum, Art
Gallery of NSW, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney,
Historic Houses Trust of NSW, National Trust
of Australia (NSW), State Library of New
South Wales, Queen Victoria Museum and Art
Gallery in Launceston, Tasmanian Archives
and Heritage Office, Victoria and Albert
Museum, Queensland Museum, Australian
War Memorial, British Museum, British
Library, Royal Collection, the National Army
Museum London, National Maritime Museum
Greenwich, Silentworld Foundation and a
private lender are displayed.
Michelle Linder has curated a wide range of
exhibitions at the Australian National Maritime
Museum on topics including naval history, travel
souvenirs and community life on the MurrayDarling
river system. She is co-curator of East of India
forgotten trade with Australia.

REFERENCE
Meer Juan testimony to a Special Bench of Magistrates 10 July
1819. House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, Correspondence
on State of Slavery in Territories under rule of East India Company
and Slave Trade, 1826.

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

F IR S T E N C O U N T E R S : T H E P ORT U G U E S E I N J A P A N
Olivia Meehan
The Discovery of the Longitudes of the Globe by the Declination of the Magnet from the Pole,
Engraved by Jan Collaert II, engraving, 19.9 x 27cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n 1543, after more than a century of

exploration and expansion, the first
Europeans, the Portuguese, landed on the
Isle of Tanegashima off the southern island
of Kysh, Japan. Their arrival has been
described in Japanese as kamikaze, by the
winds of the gods, or by accident and,
indeed, the Portuguese did not intend to visit
Japan; their landing on Japanese shores was
caused by severe weather conditions (Lidin
2002). Initially they were received well by
the Daimy and the shgunate of Japan, who
recognized the political importance and value
of relations with the Portuguese as facilitators
of trade with China. The Portuguese brought
with them guns, Western learning materials
and Christianity.
The people of Japan were no strangers to
the idea of cultural exchange when they
first encountered Europeans in the mid16th century. Japan was actively engaged
with China and Korea for centuries and
well accustomed to appropriating aspects of
language, religion, culture, art and literature
from foreign lands. And yet their encounter
with Europe produced some very different
results. The open and polytheistic Shint
religion that dominated Japan at the time,
presented no barriers for its followers as they
welcomed a useful ally who worshipped, what
was to them, just one more deity. As long as
they limited their relationship to commerce,
and agreed to keep out of affairs of state, the
Portuguese were free to worship their god
and proselytize his greatness, predominantly
through pictorial representation. (Kuroda
1981). As a result, the Japanese were exposed
to, and acquired, aspects of European culture
without submitting to colonization. In this
process it can be argued that the Japanese
discovered the West on their own terms,
grounded in qualities inherent in their
own culture, traditions, and art practices
(Mastumoto 1998).
For decades scholars of Portuguese history
have examined the monumental Japanese
screen paintings from the late 16th and
early 17th centuries, especially those which
depict the arrival of Portuguese merchants
and missionaries to Japanese shores: Nanban
bybu, Southern Barbarian folding screens.
In art historical terms the word Nanban has
been used to refer to Japanese works of art
produced as a result of the contact between
southern Europe (principally Portugal and

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

Italy) and Japan during this period. The

term does not describe a particular style
or technique. Nanban bybu were executed
by Japanese workshops, using Japanese
tradition painting methods, for a Japanese
market: these screens were not made for an
export market. Typically displayed in pairs,
each screen consisted of six to eight panels
and was divided into groups of arrival
scene paintings. The first group shows the
departure of the Portuguese carrack, Black
Ship (or nau), from a foreign port on the left
screen, and on the right, the arrival of the ship
to Japan. The next group shows the arrival of
the Portuguese Black Ship to Japanese shores
on the left screen, and on the right screen is
a procession of Portuguese merchants and
missionaries through the streets of a Japanese
port town. The third identified group depicts
scenes in Japan only. Around 94 screens
survive and can be found in collections
worldwide (Sakamoto 2008).
By their content, the paintings are inextricably
linked to Portuguese exploration in East
Asia, but how do these works figure in the
scheme of Japanese painting and pictorial
narrative? What do they tell us about trade
and cultural exchange in the early modern
period? Mastumoto Moritaka claims Nanban
bybu reveal much more about projected
Japanese perceptions of the other than about
the foreigners themselves. Extant European
sources are valuable for understanding the
European experience of Japan at that time,

but only in framing one side of the history.

Matsumoto writes: Thus, the Europeans
image of themselves in Japanese society was
largely the product of their perceptions of the
Japanese views of Nanban people and culture
which the Japanese saw as superficial and
inorganic; and the Europeans seem to have
promoted or even capitalized on this image
for the express purposes of their business and
religion (Mastumoto 1988).
With the establishment of a Jesuit mission
in Japan, delicately illustrated bibles were
given to the missionaries for their own use,
as much as for propaganda (Cieslik 1963).
Two of the most renowned family workshops,
active in Antwerp, were given the onerous
task of producing many of these books. The
Wierix family, Johannes (c.1549-c. 1618), his
younger brothers Hieronymus (1553-1619)
and Antonius II (c.1555/59-1604) and the
Sadeler family, Jan I (1550-1600), Aegidius
I (1555-1609) and Rafael I (1560-1632), were
patronised by the Jesuits from the late 16th to
the early 17th centuries. The majority of the
Wierixs production was religious and served
the Counter-Reformation. The engraving style
of the family was unique and their output was
celebrated for its technical sophistication and
delicacy (Ruyven-Zeman 2004). Evidence
of Wierix and Sadeler family engravings
circulating in Japan in the late 16th century
can clearly be detected in the depiction of
foreign material (ship design, costumes,
goods and people) in Nanban bybu.

Impression of the English galleon White Bear built in 1563, Claes Jansz Visscher
after Vroom (1580-1660), engraving, 133 x 187cm, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

Kan family as gift for Pope Gregory XIII and,

in return, Valignano ensured that the Japanese
envoy brought back works of art as gifts for
noblemen. Among these gifts were items of
clothing, jewellery, armour, maps, musical
instruments, a printing press, illustrated books
and several oil paintings, secular in theme.
It is thought that the majority of imported
paintings were kept at the Jesuit Seminary on
Kysh as models for Japanese artists enrolled
in the school. Within a short period of time the
Western copies were circulated and reached
the main island, where they were, in turn,
copied again by other Japanese artists.

The iconographic scheme of the Nanban

bybu borrows from types found in both
traditional Japanese painting, and in a series
of European engravings predominately taken
from Jan Huygen van Linschotens Icones
Habitus Gestusque (1604) and other Dutch
and English copies. Various styles were
imaginatively brought together to create a
contemporary compositional hybrid, unique
to the encounter between the Japanese and
the Portuguese. The key design motifs reveal
a fashionable desire for the new and the novel,
but they also frequently reference Japanese
tradition. In creating specific prototypes and
groups, the painters established their own
working narrative: the departure, the arrival,
the procession. Although this can be regarded
as a radical diversion from the convention
of illustrating scenes from classical texts and
lore, it was a narrative familiar to the rising

military elite, and known via sources from

preceding eras. Therefore, in the development
of Japanese painting the emergence of Nanban
bybu can be considered a symbol of the
reinvention of this aspect of Japanese identity
through the artists imagination.
The first secular Western paintings are thought
to have arrived in Japan around 1590. In order
to gain papal support for the Society of Jesus,
Father Alessandro Valignano (1539-1606)
organised an embassy, the express aim of which
was to secure exclusive rights to missionary
work in Japan. Four young Japanese men
from Kysh were selected for the embassy to
Portugal, Spain and Italy. The experience was
intended to expose them to the splendours of
European culture, courtly life, art, architecture,
power and influence of the Church. Nobunaga
gave Valignano a set of screens painted by the

Despite Tokugawa Ieyasus apparent interest

in Western affairs, he gradually enforced more
stringent laws on the practice of Christianity
and Christian settlements. With the arrival of
Dominican friars, and later the Franciscans,
tensions arose within the ranks of Christian
settlements in Japan. The disputes were
impossible to conceal from the watchful eye of
the Japanese ruling elite. The Portuguese were
unwilling to come to an agreement (with the
Japanese) to eliminate all religious connection
and make trade the sole agenda (Boxer 1965).
The ban on Christianity and its cultural material
had an instantaneous impact on the production
of Nanban bybu. The boats literally stopped
arriving and so did the paintings. The majority
of the commissioners of these art works are
thought to have been members of the Shgunate
or Daimy associated with the Shgun. The
political agenda dictated the nature of artistic
commissions, and although the taste for gold
leaf screen painting did not diminish, the subject
matter most certainly did. The appropriation
of European style and painting technique was
also abandoned with little or no evidence of
influence. Occasionally it is possible to see a
lone Nanban-jin character in kinsei shoki fzokuga,

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

Comportment and Dress of the Portuguese Citizens and Soldiers in East India as They Appear in
the Streets from Icones Habitus Gestusque Indorum ac Lusitanorum, engraving by Jan Huygen
van Linschoten, 1604, published by Cornelis Claesz, Amsterdam. British Museum, London

continuum of artistic practice and dynamism

both before and after this specific period.
When the Tokugawa Shgunate came to
its formal agreement with the Dutch East
India Company, it finally achieved what
Toyotomi Hideyoshi had hoped to do with
the Portuguese half a century earlier: set up
trade without the pressure and interference
of religion. The agreement or trade pass was
signed in August 1609.
Dr Olivia Meehan is Lecturer in Art History at the
Australian National University.

REFERENCES
Boxer, Charles R. (1965). Four Centuries of Portuguese Expansion,
1415-1825: A Succinct Survey, Witwatersrand University Press,

early modern genre scenes, showing past times

and pleasures, but these appearances were
sporadic and short lived.
There are two great examples of so-called
Nanban-jin depicted in kinsei shoki fzokuga
at Kobe City Museum. The pair of six-fold
screens showing the Fry Odori a popular
dance that took place during Hanami, cherry
blossom viewing, includes four figures in
Nanban costumes. Looking closely at the
figures dressed in Portuguese costume, it
is not possible to distinguish their physical
features as European, which suggests that
they could be Japanese people in fancy dress
(Toby 1991). There are a number of clear
indicators to support this explanation: the
total ban on European people to enter Japan,
the strict punishment for any association
with Christians and finally, and perhaps most
significantly, the Japanese fascination with
pageantry, costumes and theatre (Toby 1986)
While these figures are unlikely to represent
actual European persons, their presence

does reveal that the Japanese fascination for

European material culture had not diminished
completely, even if never properly understood.
Such interest and curiosity began to reemerge
in painting some time after trade agreements
and routine were established with the Dutch
at Nagasaki, where the traders were kept at
a bridged distance from the shore via a manmade structure called Deijma. Once again
the so-called European presence in these
paintings reveals more about Japanese taste
and trends, rather than documenting the daily
habits of foreigners in Japan.

Johannesburg, p. 53.
Cieslik, Hubert (1963). The Training of a Japanese Clergy in
the Seventeenth Century, Studies in Japanese Culture, Joseph
Roggendorf (ed.), Sophia University Press, Tokyo.
Kuroda Toshio (1981). Shinto in the History of Japanese Religion,
translated by James Dobbins & Suzanne Gay, Journal of Japanese
Studies, vol. 7, pp. 1-21.
Lidin, Olof G (2002). Tanegashima: The Arrival of Europe in Japan,
NIAS, Copenhagen.
Mastumoto Moritaka (1988). Images of Westerns in Nanban Art
in The Walls Within: Images of Westerners in Japan and Images
of the Japanese Abroad, Kinya Tsuruta (ed.), University of British
Columbia, Vancouver, pp. 187-211.
Mastumoto Moritaka (1998). Images of Western and Japanese
Art: Embodiment of Imagination and Pseudo-reality in Nanban Art
in Japan and the West: The Perception Gap, Keizo Nagatani and

By acknowledging the expansive, wellestablished and highly professional practice of

family workshops in early modern Japan, we
are better able to view the arrival of Europeans
and the spirited but limited introduction of
European models in a wider context. There
is no doubt that the European arrival created
commercial optimism in Japan and stimulated
both curiosity in wealthy elites and also
imagination in its creative industries, but it was
a relatively brief moment in a centuries-old

David Edgington (eds), Ashgate Publishing, London, pp. 13-48.

Ruyven-Zeman, Zsuzanna van (2004). The Wierix Family:
Introduction and Guide to the Catalogue. Hollsteins Dutch and
Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450-1700, vol. 49,
Sound and Vision Publishers, Rotterdam.
Sakamoto Mitsuru (2008). Nanban Bybu Shusei, Chuo Koron
Bijutsu Shuppan, Heisei 20, Tokyo.
Toby, Ronald (1986). Carnival of the Aliens: Korean Embassies in
Edo-Period Art and Popular Culture, Monumenta Nipponia, vol.
41, no. 4, pp. 415-456.
Toby, Ronald (1991). State and Diplomacy in Early Modern
Japan: Asia in the Development of the Tokugawa Bakufu, Stanford

The Arrival of the Portuguese, KANO Naizen, pair of six-panel folded screens, colour on gold-decorated paper, 154.5 x 363.2cm, late 16th century, early 17th century,
Kobe City Museum, Kobe. The author would like to thank Tsukahara, Akira and the Kobe City Museum for use of the Nanban byObu images.

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

M E DALLIO N P ATT E R N S AT A N G K OR W AT A N D AL C H I ( LADA K H ) : S H AR E D M E A N I N G S

Gill Green
Episodes from the life of the historical Buddha painted on Maitreya hipwrapper (detail). Image courtesy Jaroslav Poncar

his article examines two sets of

medallion-patterned panels created some
eight centuries ago at two major religious
monuments on the Asian continent. The first
location is at Angkor Wat dated to the first
half of 12th century and the second at Sumstek
monastery, Alchi in Ladakh, northern India
dated to between the 11th and 13th centuries.

The panels at Angkor Wat are sculpted in stone

in bas relief whereas at the Sumstek monastery,
medallion-patterned panels appear in an
arresting fashion, painted on the hipwrappers
of clay images of Bodhisattvas four to four and
a half metres high. What the panels at both
temples share is an unusual feature - each
medallion encloses a figurative motif.
These medallion panels may have a
significance beyond mere decoration. The
unusual inclusion of figurative motifs suggests
a kind of shorthand: these single figures may
be iconic images which, in the case of Angkor
Wat, refer to a Hindu narrative, or in the case of
the Sumstek, to Buddhist motifs with a similar
narrative purpose. Further it is proposed that
these medallion panels represent in stone and
paint, Indian sourced textiles circulating at
that time which later became the inspiration
for specific textile patterns on Indian cotton
cloth acquired by the Thai royal court from at
least the 17th century onwards.
In 1913 George Cdes published a paper
reporting on a group of unusual bas relief
panels at Angkor Wat. They appear on
window and doorjambs, on pilasters and
some wall surfaces. Making ink rubbings
of the bas reliefs, he noted no associated
inscriptions. These panels comprise a trellis
of medallions, with each individual medallion
formed by a vegetal spiral which curves
round to form the circle. Approximately 12cm
in diameter, the medallions extend alternately
left and right from the spine of the supporting
arabesque form.
These panels are distinct from two other
sets of bas reliefs at Angkor Wat. One is the
celebrated large-scale narrative bas reliefs on
the inner walls of the first and second level
galleries. Based on Hindu themes, myths or
on Khmer historical scenes, sequential scenes
are presented in a two or more metres high
continuous band. The second are medallions
in the form of discs lined up in rows so that
they contact each other at four points in

10

an array. As with the medallion trellises,

these are found on walls, window ledges
and doorjambs and also on representations
of what would today be termed window
blinds. They feature repeat secular motifs of
birds, lotus, interlocking circles, and pairs of
confronted phoenix or parrots.
Characteristically, the individual arabesque
medallions enclose a single figure. These
include figures described as: flower men
combin[ing] the torso and arms of a man
and the head of a man or an animal. They
are shown on the corolla of a flower as if they
were blossoming or growing like a fruit
(Roveda 2005:308). There are also deities,
humans, ascetics, worshippers, animals and
birds, and also depictions of mythical scenes
with their elements in adjoining medallions,
each medallion therefore contributing an
episode or a significant element of a story.
Cdes identified these as Hindu narratives
including the Ramayana and other Hindu
myths and concluded that the purpose of
the trellis was to: show us the main
legendary scenes treated with a minimum
of detail and characters, but [which] permit
us to identify the essential elements, their
essential characteristics (1913:3). Jean
Commaille remarked that medallion patterns
represent a tapestry created in stone relief
(1913:35). Roveda concurs and terms these

panels tapestry reliefs which simulat [e]

tapestry decoration (dcor en tapisserie)
(2003:224). Neither Commaille nor Roveda,
however, provide evidence in support of a
textile simulation.
Other researchers have also postulated the use
of textile designs as wall coverings represented
in bas relief. Hiram Woodward examined
medallion style bas relief panels on outer walls
of the 7th century Hindu temple Candi Sewu,
Prambanan, Java (1977). He concluded that
these particular patterns represented Chinese
textiles used as wall decoration sculpted in
stone. Green (2007) undertook an analysis of the
patterns found on sets of medallions on walls
at Angkor Wat, whose motifs were referred
to above as secular. These were compared
with actual examples of archaeologically
recovered fragments of Chinese silk textiles
with medallion patterns dated from the Tang
Dynasty (608-907 CE) to the end of the Song
(960-1279 CE). My conclusion was that these
particular Angkorian secular medallions
represented textiles sourced in China which
served as dcor, but not dress, textiles at the
Khmer court. Such luxury textiles had been
observed in use in the royal Khmer courts of
the late 13th century by a Chinese emissary,
and would have embellished the walls of
royal wooden palaces. Sculpted in stone, they
provided permanent embellishment in the
temples, the palaces of the gods.

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

Clay image of Maitreya, Sumstek Monastery, Alchi. Ladakh, North India. c. 11th 13th century.
Image courtesy Jaroslav Poncar

Turning westward to the Sumstek monastery

at Alchi, on the right bank of the Indus River,
undoubtedly the most prominent features
of this three-storey monastery are three
massive images of the Bodhisattvas Manjusri,
Maitreya
and Avalokiteshvara.
These
images are painted so that details of crowns,
scarves, sacred strings, and waist-to-ankle
hipwrappers are minutely depicted.
Maitreyas hipwrapper is painted with a
trellis of medallions each enclosing a motif
which depicts an episode in the life of the
historical Buddha. Manjusris hipwrapper has
a trellis of diamond shaped spaces created by
use of adjoining stepped squares. Enclosed
in each space is an image of a mahasiddha
(Sanskrit: maha - great, siddha - achiever).
Avalokiteshvaras hipwrapper is slightly
different in that the imagery is not contained in
a trellis of medallions but the individual motifs
of temples are freely disposed over the textile.
As Maitreyas medallions and Manjusris
diamond lattice design contain images of
individuals or single episodes, they arguably
have the same narrative intent as those
medallion trellises at Angkor Wat - but with
one major difference. At Angkor Wat the
panels are derived from Hindu themes, even
though Mahayana Buddhism was established
as the state religion by Jayavarman VII (11811218 CE). At the Sumstek they are Buddhist.
Roger Goepper, the researcher of the Sumstek
temple, notes that:
Whereas narrative scenes from [other
nearby temples] are usually arranged
in horizontal friezes as if from scenes in
a comic book, the version on the dhoti
[hipwrapper] of the Maitreya sculpture
presents the scenes as transpositions into
decorative context, isolating them into
separate units, the sequence of which is
not obvious at first sight. This striking
phenomenon may perhaps be seen in
context with the general interest in textiles
to be observed throughout the Sumstek
murals (1996:26).
This description of the two kinds of
narrative formats found in or near Sumstek,
mirrors the various bas relief panels at
Angkor Wat. It also, significantly for this
discussion, introduces the notion that these
patterns indicate the presence of textiles.
Does the placement of these themes on the
Bodhisattvas hipwrappers represent textiles
available at that time (early 13th century),
specifically patterned to serve a narrative
purpose? If so, are they similar in intent to the
tapestry reliefs at Angkor? Can one surmise

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

that both operate simultaneously as carriers

of narrative, as well as fulfilling a practical
purpose as wall covering or hipwrapper?
To turn to the question of what Indian textiles
are known in this early mediaeval period:
block printing was the predominant technique
used to decorate such textiles, supplemented
by mordant and resist printing or painting.
These techniques allow a free hand in surface
decoration of a textile canvas, one which
is much less limiting than the brocade
techniques of many of the Chinese sourced
textiles of the time.
A cache of a thousand fragments of printed
cotton textiles exported from Gujarat on the
northwest coast of India was excavated at
Fustat (old Cairo) in the 1920s (Barnes 1997).
Their age range is said to span the 13th to
the 16th century (Barnes 2010:37). Another

similar cache was found at Quseir al-Qadim

on the Red Sea coast. Because these remnant
textiles are fragments it cannot be determined
whether motifs were displayed in panels like
those at the Sumstek or at Angkor Wat. Some
fragments, however, do feature particular
motifs - arabesque scrolls, hamsa (goose),
medallions with floral decoration, interlocking
circles, stepped squares, and in one instance
elephants, horses and riders, seen on the textiles
in question. These Fustat textiles were destined
for trade to the west and no doubt reflected
those customers taste. But Indian merchants
would or could have responded to requests
for textile patterns that reflected the tastes and
requirements of markets to the east, specifically
for Hindu and Buddhist use. Indian merchants
could have supplied textiles at Angkor Wat
and Sumstek and indeed Indian textiles
were recorded by a late 13th century Chinese
emissary as held in high esteem at Angkor.

11

MAHASIDDHAS IN DIAMOND TRELLIS PATTERN ON MANJUSRI HIPWRAPPER (DETAIL). SUMSTEK MONASTERY,

ARABESQUE MEDALLIONS (DETAIL). ANGKOR WAT, CAMBODIA, FIRST

ALCHI, LADAKH, NORTH INDIA, PAINT ON CLAY. IMAGE COURTESY JAROSLAV PONCAR

HALF 12TH CENTURY, BAS RELIEF ON STONE. PHOTO GILL GREEN

Even without further evidence, however,

it seems reasonable to surmise that these
distinctive medallion trellis panels allow
glimpses into the very early 12th century
Indian merchants textile trade for which India
has long been renowned. And indeed could
the Royal Thai textiles be the faint echoes
of the textiles of centuries past circulating
between India and eastern markets?
Gill Green is President of TAASA and an Honorary
Associate in the Department of Art History and Film
Studies, University of Sydney.

REFERENCES
Barnes, R. (1997), Indian Block-Printed Textiles in Egypt, Clarendon
Press, Oxford.
Barnes, R. & Hunt Kahlenberg, M. (2010), Five Thousand Years of
Indonesian Textiles, Delmonico Books.
Cdes, G. (1913), Etudes cambodgiennes, V11, Second etude sur

A collection of Indian sourced, block printed

medallion patterned textiles specifically
prepared for the Thai royal court dating to at
least the 17th century are noteworthy textiles
in the collection of the National Museum in
Bangkok (Natthapatra Chandavij 2002). They
served both as hipwrappers and as dcor wall decorations or floor coverings their
dress use differentiated from dcor use by
the pattern layout (Guy 1998:138). A number
of these dress item textiles are patterned with
medallions enclosing figurative motifs as seen
at Angkor, most prominently flower men,
(vide infra), thepanom (worshippers), apsaras,
and mythical animals. Medallion patterns with
Buddhist motifs as seen at Alchi would not
be appropriate as dress items in Theravada
Buddhist Thailand so those motifs would not
have been replicated in the same way.

12

As well as providing a kind of shorthand

iconic representation of Hindu or Buddhist
narratives, the few but illuminating medallion
trellis patterns found at Angkor and Alchi
arguably also depict Indian sourced textiles.
It would certainly help the argument if
other panels similar to these were recorded
elsewhere on the Asian sub continent. At
many of the famous 13th century religious
monuments at Pagan, Burma, inner vaults
and walls are painted with medallion
patterns. They are, however, repeat discs
contacting each other at four points and those
with figurative motifs feature images of the
Buddha, quite unlike the panels examined
here. These types of medallion panels are
much more related to brocade patterns on
Chinese sourced textiles as observed by
Woodward.

les bas-reliefs dAngkor Vat, BEFEO, V111-6, 13-36.

Goepper, R. (1996). Alchi. Ladaks Hidden Buddhist Sanctuary,
Serindia.
Green, G. (2007), Angkor Vogue: Sculpted Evidence of Imported
Luxury Textiles in the Courts of Kings and Temples in Journal of the
Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol.50, No.4, 424-451.
Guy, J. (1998), Woven Cargoes, Thames & Hudson.
Natthapatra Chandavij, (2002), Phaa Phim laay booraan nay
phiphithaphan thasathaan heng chaat, Krungtheep, Krom
Silpaakon PS 2545 [Ancient Chintz Fabrics in the National
Museums], National Museum, Bangkok.
Roveda. V. (2003), Sacred Angkor, River Books, Bangkok.
(2005), Images of the Gods, River Books, Bangkok.
Woodward, H. (1977) A Chinese Silk depicted at Candi Sewu
in Economic Exchange and Social Interaction in Southeast Asia,
Centre for South and Southeast Asian Studies Michigan, 233-241.

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

C U LT U RAL P OLITI C S : B ATI K A N D W A Y A N G I N I N DO N E S IA A N D M ALA Y S IA

Marshall Clark
BATIK SARONG, YOGYAKARTA, CENTRAL JAVA, C. 1998, COTTON. COLLECTION AND PHOTO: MARSHALL CLARK

n recent history as a fabric, art and

craft batik has been associated with the
Javanese of Indonesia and the Malays of east
coast Peninsular Malaysia. As a generic term,
batik refers to a process of decorating a fabric
by applying a wax-resist prior to dyeing. In
Southeast Asia, batik first emerged in Java,
and made its way to the Malay Peninsula
sometime after the 13th century. This occurred
as a consequence of the close trade relations
between various Malay courts and the northern
coastal batik producing areas of Java.

For centuries there has been a great flow of

people, products and ideas in the region, with
Malay being the common lingua franca. But
with the emergence of colonialism, nationalism
and postcolonial state-building, the previously
close kinship relations shared between the
peoples of the two countries have become
strained. Malaysians now speak Malay, and
Indonesians now speak Indonesian (really a
variant of Malay). Despite increased trade and
bilateral cooperation, over the last decade in
particular Indonesia-Malaysia ties have been
marked by rivalry, acrimony and conflict.
It is in this context that in 2009, Indonesia
took great pride in UNESCOs recognition
of batik textiles as a distinctly Indonesian
form of cultural heritage. President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono jubilantly declared a
national batik-wearing day and it is now
de rigueur for Indonesian civil servants
to wear batik every Friday. But for many,
the UNESCO decision was seen less as a
win for Indonesia and more as a snub to
Malaysia. This is because Malaysian batik
has developed as a highly nuanced form of
art and heritage in its own right. In contrast
to Indonesian batik, which could be argued is
more of a craft than an art, Malaysian batik
has bolder, freer designs striking abstracts
and energetic floral forms with brighter
palette and innovative colour combinations
(Yunus 2011: 12). In short, Malaysian batik
is more adventurous, its artists more bold,
experimental, and innovative. In Malaysia,
batik is more art than craft.
Malaysian designers and artists have long
been willing to adopt the motifs and textures
of batik textiles into their latest designs, which
are then exhibited in art galleries, fashion
boutiques and malls and sold at international
prices. They are thus producing batik designs
for both profit and critical acclaim, without

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

needing UNESCO recognition of batik as

a distinctly Malaysian form of intangible
cultural heritage. Adding to the complexity
of this narrative, many Malaysian batik
artists have studied in Javas batik heartlands.
Moreover, many of Malaysias batik artisans
are in fact Indonesian migrant workers, who
are attracted to the much higher wages they
can expect to receive in Malaysia.
With UNESCOs listing of Indonesian batik,
it appears that Malaysia has little hope of
ever securing UNESCO acknowledgement
of its own distinct Malaysian batik tradition.
This has serious implications for other artforms found throughout the Indo-Malay
world, which happen to be very much part
of Malaysias heritage. If these forms of
intangible heritage occur in both Indonesia
and Malaysia, evidently they are offbounds for Malaysia. This includes wayang
kulit (shadow puppet theatre), keris (an
asymmetrical dagger with a distinctive wavy
blade), gamelan and angklung (a traditional
bamboo musical instrument). Indonesia has
jealously guarded these forms of intangible
cultural heritage by systematically and
professionally lodging claims with UNESCO,
which have met with success.
Not wanting to upset its much larger and
more cantankerous neighbour, Malaysias
UNESCO office has generally shied away

from nominating contested or even shared

Indo-Malay heritage items. Thus Kuala
Lumpur has turned its attention elsewhere,
to literary manuscripts such as the Syair
Almarhum Baginda Sultan Abu Bakar di Negeri
Johor (The Poem of the late Sultan Abu
Bakar of Johor), for instance, which has been
nominated, most recently in 2012, for the
UNESCOs Memory of the World Register of
documentary heritage.
Despite UNESCOs listing of Indonesian
batik, many Indonesians fear that Malaysia
will again attempt to claim one form of
Indonesian cultural expression or another,
including batik. Other critics, cognisant of
Kuala Lumpurs successful marketing of batik
abroad to the United States, France, England
and other countries, have criticised Jakarta for
its poor ability to market forms of Indonesian
cultural heritage (Chong 2012). Thus batik
and other cultural forms in Indonesia have
become mere pawns in a much larger game of
transnational one-upmanship.
For the Malaysian government, the politics
of cultural heritage is less an issue of
international relations and more of an internal
issue, involving domestic contestation among
the nations different ethnic groups, each
of which seeks to promote its own forms of
cultural heritage for its own political purposes.
Few would argue that Malay cultural heritage

13

BATIK CLOTH, YOGYAKARTA, CENTRAL JAVA, C. 1998, COTTON. COLLECTION AND PHOTO: MARSHALL CLARK

Kelantan, and history repeated itself. For PAS,

all facets of state and society should revolve
around Islam, leaving little sympathy for
traditional pre-Islamic cultural forms such as
wayang, which was heavily dependent on the
narratives and characters of originally Indian
Hindu epics such as the Ramayana. PAS
promptly banned wayang kulit and various
other traditional Malay art forms, accusing
them of being un-Islamic. The prohibition
was only lifted after the puppeteers of
Kelantan abandoned the Ramayana epic in
their performances, drawing on local folk
tales instead.

forms have long been promoted over the art,

culture and heritage of ethnic minorities such
as the Chinese. Although difficult to quantify,
a cursory examination of Malaysias leading
art galleries, exhibitions and museums would
indicate an overwhelming emphasis on Malay
cultural forms. There is also a heavy focus on
the post-independence period, which has
been dominated by Malay-centric policies.
At both a national and a regional level,
Indonesia has little motivation to maintain
and revive much of its cultural heritage. The
hyper-nationalistic causes clbres of batik
and wayang kulit are exceptions to the rule.
Generally, as long as Indonesias economy
is still developing, questions of economic
growth and the alleviation of poverty are of
a much higher priority. State-run galleries or
museums, therefore, endure a chronic lack
of financial support. Although entrance to
museums in Indonesia is either inexpensive
or free of charge, most Indonesians, other than
groups of schoolchildren, avoid them, as they
are generally unattractive, poorly curated
and, most importantly, still closely associated
with Suharto-era indoctrination, as Adams
(2003), for example, notes.
With its more well-developed economy, for
several decades now Malaysia has become a
reasonably prosperous country with middleclass concerns, including the protection and
promotion of art, museums and heritage.
As a consequence, Malaysia is far more
determined to ensure that history and
heritage play leading roles in the national
cultural narrative. In contrast to Indonesia,
many of Malaysias state museums and

14

galleries are well funded, employing state-ofthe-art curatorial practices and technologies,
often attracting modest numbers of visitors
and corporate sponsorship.
If we move beyond the cultural nationalism
epitomised by the successful nomination of
Indonesian batik for UNESCOs cultural
heritage listing, in terms of systematically
maintaining
and
promoting
cultural
heritage, Indonesia still has some way to go.
In Southeast Asia, Malaysia is among the
front-runners in relation to the advocacy and
efficacy of museums, cultural theme parks
and cultural heritage tours and trails. Yet, if
we compare and contrast the fate of wayang
kulit, and the Ramayana epic in particular,
in Indonesia and Malaysia, there are a few
important ironies worth highlighting.
Lets start with Malaysia. For centuries, wayang
kulit has been active in the northern states
of Peninsular Malaysia, principally in the
state of Kelantan and in the districts north of
Kelantan in Patani, a Malay majority territory
in southern Thailand, with which Kelantan
shares much of its culture and cultural forms
(Yousof 2010: 135). It remains unclear exactly
when wayang first arrived. Most scholars tend
to agree that it began when Javanese shadow
puppet theatre was introduced into the Malay
peninsula following the spread of Islam in
Java in the 14th century, when orthodox
Muslims saw the pre-Islamic Javanese
shadow play as undesirable, even harmful
(Yousof 2010: 135).
In 1990, PAS (Parti Islam Se-Malaysia orthe
Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party) gained power in

In contrast to Malaysia, wayang kulit enjoys

great popularity in contemporary Indonesia,
with regular performances attracting large
crowds, often broadcast live to state and
commercial TV stations. Many puppeteers
enjoy celebrity status in Indonesia, and allnight performances are often spectacular
events involving high-profile singers and
comedians, as well as a full gamelan orchestra.
The Balinese version of the Ramayana epic,
written in Kawi (Old Javanese), is widely
accepted in predominately Hindu Bali and,
according to I Made Bandem (2010: 145):
almost everyone is familiar with the essential
sequence of the story.
In Java, although the Mahabharata cycle
of tales remains the most popular, during
times of social and political turmoil it is
not uncommon to see Javanese shadow
puppeteers drawing on the Ramayana for
inspiration. In the months leading up to the
fall of Suharto in 1998, for instance, there
was a boom in Ramayana performances. At
the time, many parallels with the Ramayana
epic including its plots, motifs and
characters could be seen. The relatively
straightforward epic narrative of Hanumans
monkey army rescuing the kidnapped Sinta
(Sita) from Rahwana the evil ogre king
struck a number of parallels with the student
movement, which was seeking to rescue a
kidnapped Indonesia from the corruption
and authoritarianism of Suharto and his New
Order regime.
Despite its UNESCO status and national and
indeed global prestige, however, the wayang
of Java, Sunda and Bali does not quite yet
enjoy untouchable status in contemporary
Indonesia. Mirroring the fate of wayang kulit
in Malaysias northern states, wayang has been
threatened by Islamist groups. For example,
in September 2011, in Purwakarta, West Java,
several statues depicting characters from the
wayang shadow theatre were vandalised and
destroyed by a mob emerging from a prayer
session in the citys largest mosque.

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

JAVANESE WAYANG KULIT SHADOW PUPPETS, YOGYAKARTA, CENTRAL JAVA, C. 1998,

CARVED LEATHER. COLLECTION AND PHOTO: MARSHALL CLARK

INSIDE BURMA: THE ESSENTIAL

EXPERIENCE
25 October 13 November 2013
Burma is undergoing unprecedented change and
publicity. 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 (now Rakhine State, formerly off-limits) and
Bagan, rivalling Angkor Wat as Southeast Asias
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 'progress'
changes it forever. Limited places still available.
Land Only cost per person twinshare
ex Yangon $5525

CAMBODIA: ANGKOR WAT,

PREAH VIHEAR AND BEYOND

According to a Jakarta Globe report, ropes were

tied from a van to a statue of puppet character
Gatotkaca to pull it from its foundation. The
crowd then turned its attention to a statue of
another much-loved puppet character, Semar,
and, after throwing rocks and pulling it to the
ground, hit it with sticks and metal rods before
setting it on fire. A statue of the wayangs Bima
was also targeted and set on fire, before the
mob moved on statues depicting the twin
brothers of the Mahabharata, Nakula and
Sadewa (Krisna 2011). Fortunately, hundreds
of police and army officers were already on
hand, guarding the Nakula and Sadewa and
when it started raining the mob dispersed.
The hardline Islamic Peoples Forum (FUI)
had opposed the statues when the project
was announced by the Purwakarta city
administration in 2010. FUI argued that the
statues were against the Islamic identity of the
city and claimed the statues would encourage
people to have superstitious beliefs (Krisna
2011). Most Indonesian Muslims, it should
be noted, deplore the hardline radicalism of
Islamist groups such as FUI.
It seems that despite the popularity of preIslamic art forms in Indonesia, tensions
between artists, art-lovers and hardline
Islamic groups remain. Why is this so? It
could be argued that incidents such as this are
a not unexpected by-product of Indonesias
democratic consolidation process. Yet it is
useful to remember that a similar process
is occurring in the conservative state of
Kelantan in soft-authoritarian Malaysia.
Moreover, as mentioned above, the early
movement and development of pre-Islamic
shadow play throughout the region was as

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

a result of the arrival of Islam. Perhaps the

latest tensions are but the latest chapter in this
ongoing evolution? Either way, trade and the
exchange and adaptation of cultural practices
and art forms in maritime Southeast Asia
have had unforeseen consequences. In the
contemporary era, art and forms of cultural
heritage are being exploited and manipulated
for complex reasons, simultaneously echoing
and diverging from historical precedents.
Marshall Clark is Senior Lecturer at the Institute
for Professional Practice in Heritage and the Arts,
Australian National University. He is the author of
Maskulinitas: Culture, Gender and Politics in Indonesia
(2010) and co-editor of Macassan History and
Heritage: Journeys, Encounters and Influences (2013).

REFERENCES
Adams, K.M. 2003. Museum/city/nation: negotiating identities in
urban museums in Indonesia and Singapore, in R.B.H. Goh and
B.S.A. Yeoh (eds), Theorizing the Southeast Asian city as text: urban
landscapes, cultural documents and interpretive experiences. World
Scientific Publishing, Singapore, pp. 13558.
Bandem, I.M. 2010. Ramayana: the roles of the great epic in
Visual and performing arts of Bali, in Gauri Parimoo Krishnan
(ed), Ramayana in focus: visual and performing arts of Asia. Asian
Civilisations Museum, Singapore, pp. 134-143.
Chong, J.W. 2012. Mine, yours or ours?: The Indonesia-Malaysia
disputes over shared cultural heritage. Sojourn: Journal of Social
Issues in Southeast Asia 27 (1): 153.
Krisna, Y. 2011. Mob destroys four wayang statues. Jakarta
Globe, 19 September. <http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/
mob-destroys-four-wayang-statues/466195> Accessed 17
December 2012.

28 October 14 November 2013

Angkors timeless grandeur is unmissable. But now
Preah Vihear, the revered mountaintop temple of
immense historical and political significance for the
Khmers, is finally accessible.
Both generate unforgettable travel memories. 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 this longstanding annual program.
Land Only cost per person twinshare
ex Phnom Penh $5125

ISAN: THAILANDS ANCIENT

KHMER CONNECTION
26 January 14 February 2014
Isan is the least visited part of Thailand. But this
north-eastern region has a distinctive identity and, in
many ways, is the Kingdoms heartland. Here older
Thai customs remain more intact and sites of historical
and archaeological significance abound. Darryl
Collins and Gill Green (see above) lead this new
journey which includes spectacular Khmer temples
such as Prasat Phimai, Phanom Rung (reputed to be
the blueprint for Angkor Wat) and Prasat Meung Tam.
We cross the mighty Mekong into southern Laos to
explore Wat Phu Champasak before concluding in
Vientiane and magical Luang Prabang.
Land Only cost per person twinshare
ex Bangkok $5100
To register your interest, reserve a place or for
further information contact Ray Boniface

H E R I TA G E D E S T I N AT I O N S
N AT U R E B U I L D I N G S P E O P L E T R AV E L L E R S

Yousof, G. 2010. Ramayana in the Malaysian Wayang Kulit Siam,

in Gauri Parimoo Krishnan (ed), Ramayana in focus: visual and
performing arts of Asia. Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore,
pp. 134-143.
Yunus, N.A. 2011. Malaysian Batik: Reinventing a Tradition. Tuttle
Publishing, Singapore

PO Box U237
University of Wollongong NSW 2500 Australia
p: +61 2 4228 3887 m: 0409 927 129
e: heritagedest@bigpond.com
ABN 21 071 079 859 Lic No TAG1747

15

U N LI K E L Y C O N N E C TIO N S : T H E M A K A S S A N S , T H E Y OL N G U A N D T H E D U T C H
E A S T I N DI E S C O M P A N Y
James Bennett
t may seem unlikely to draw a connection
between the Art Gallery of South
Australias recently acquired A scholar in his
studio by the Dutch painter Abraham Van Den
Hecken (c. 1615 c.1669) and the Northern
Territory Yolngu artist Minimi Mamarikas
depiction of Makassar fishermen, The Malay
prau, painted on bark in 1948. Nevertheless,
both works reference events in 17th century
Indonesia which was a period of great cultural
and political change with far-reaching maritime
consequences. The Dutch East Indies Company
and local Muslim kingdoms, including Gowa
at Makassar, South Sulawesi, were engaged in
a brutal struggle for commercial control of the
archipelago yet, despite the ongoing conflict, it
was also a century of artistic brilliance in the
cosmopolitan pasisir (coastal) sultanates of
the region.

Den Heckens A scholar in his studio ostensibly

references the theme of vanitas, the skull
placed amongst the luxurious objects evoking
the Christian notion of the vanity of all
worldly riches. Luxury here is the expensive
rare objects brought from the distant Indies
as part of the spice trade which had become
the source of The Netherlands extraordinary
wealth. The painting is as much about the
golden era of Dutch maritime trade with Asia
as northern Christian spirituality. The visual
focus of the portrait is not the sitter but the

richly coloured oriental carpet draped on the

table. A cluster of bright plumage adorning
the scholars cap captures the windows light.
They are bird of paradise feathers which could
only have been obtained from the species
native habitat in New Guinea, neighbouring
the Spice Islands of Maluku.
Among the objects propped on the table is
an Indonesian keris with the hilt in the form
of a figure. Den Hecken, as well as being
an accomplished painter who worked in
both the Netherlands and London, was also
a goldsmith so the exotic style of Indies
metalwork must surely have interested him.
He was not the only Dutch painter of the
time to be fascinated by keris. Rembrandt
van Rijn depicted the Indonesian weapon in
several works of art including The blinding of
Samson (1636) and his Self portrait as an oriental
potentate with a kris (1643).
By a remarkable serendipity, the keris featured
in A scholar in his studio is very similar to a 17th
century keris from Bima, Sumbawa, in AGSAs
collection. Indonesian weapons, featuring
hilt figures, often identified as raksasa ogres,
appear to have been popular among early
Dutch collectors who were probably attracted
to their figurative decoration more than to the
plain handles that are commonly associated
with Javanese keris. Royal keris such as these

can further be confidently dated to the 17th

century as both it and the paintings scabbard
is very close to a dagger which was already
antique when it was collected from South
Sulawesi by Prince William IV (1711-1751) of
Orange-Nassau.
The influence of the South Sulawesi style of
metal work on Sumbawa keris makers is not
unexpected as Makassar conquered Sumbawa
in 1618-1626. In the painting, the keris Makassan
style is apparent in the scabbards rosette and
cord symbolising royal authority, the imitation
twine binding and the distinct reddish gold,
later known as mas Melayu or Malay gold. It
also incorporates elements from Javanese art.
The raksasa is suggestive of Hindu-Buddhist
temple guardian statues from the Majapahit
Kingdom (1293- c.1500) and earlier periods, a
reminder of the lasting influence of the Javanese
Hindu-Buddhist aesthetic on Muslim art
throughout the pasisir world.
The spread of Makassan maritime power in
the archipelago was abruptly halted when
Dutch East Indies Company forces conquered
the Makassar fortress of Sombu Opa at
modern-day Ujung Pandang, South Sulawesi,
during the 1666-1669 war. As previously
occurred when the Portuguese seized Melaka
(1511), the European invasion prompted a
dispersal of conquered peoples throughout

MINIMINI MAMARIKA, GROOTE EYLANDT, NORTHERN TERRITORY, AUSTRALIA, 1904-1972, THE MALAY PRAU, 1948, UMBAKUMBA, NATURAL EARTH PIGMENTS ON BARK,
43.7 X 89.0 CM; GIFT OF CHARLES MOUNTFORD, ART GALLERY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 0.1917

16

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

INDONESIA, ROYAL KERIS, 17TH CENTURY, BIMA, WEST NUSA

TENGGARA, NICKEL, IRON, GOLD, DIAMONDS, SEMI-PRECIOUS STONES,
51.0 X 13.0 CML GIFT OF GEOFFREY HACKETT-JONES IN MEMORY OF

ABRAHAM VAN DEN HECKEN, THE NETHERLANDS, C.1615-C.1669, A SCHOLAR IN HIS STUDIO, C.1655, THE HAGUE (?), THE NETHERLANDS, OIL

HIS BROTHER FRANK THROUGH THE ART GALLERY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

ON CANVAS, 121.8 X 106.7 CM; GIFT OF ANNE DAVIDSON, DR PETER DOBSON, DR MICHAEL DREW, DR MICHAEL HAYES, PETER MCKEE AND PHILIP

FOUNDATION 2008, ART GALLERY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

SPEAKMAN THROUGH THE ART GALLERY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA FOUNDATION COLLECTORS CLUB 2012, ART GALLERY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

the
archipelago.
The
contemporary
phenomenon of boat people is not new in
the archipelago and some fled from South
Sulawesi to the Singapore Straits region in
western Indonesia where they eventually
settled. Others, according to a Makassan
account, sailed eastward. The first Makassan
voyages to Marege, or Australia as we now
call it, is said to have occurred during the war
following the Dutch East Indies Companys
defeat of the Makassan fleet off Butung in 1667.
A number of perahu escaped the Dutch and fled
south to the Gulf of Carpentaria, where they
remained until daring to return to Makassar,
bringing with them the first cargo of trepang
(beche-de-mer or sea cumbers) harvested in
Australian waters.
The annual Makassan boat voyages to
northern Australian over subsequent centuries
greatly influenced the art and culture of
Indigenous salt water peoples. Some linear
patterns in Yolngu totemic designs are said
to been inspired by Javanese batik cloth worn
by the visiting fishermen. It is just as likely the
textiles were 19th century European imitationbatik factory prints which the Makassans
traded, eluding Dutch authorities, from
the new English free port of Singapore to

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

throughout the archipelago. The Makassans

also introduced many Indonesian words into
coastal Indigenous languages, and today the
Yolngu-matha term for a white Australian is
balanda, which literally means Dutch man.
By the time Minimini Mamarika painted The
Malay prau the visits of the Makassans were
already history as Australian authorities
banned the boats from Australian waters
in 1906. The painting does not look like an
accurate rendition of a Makassan prau and
even its title reflects the blurring of history.
When the Australian anthropologist Charles
Mountford acquired the bark painting in
1948, Malay had become the generic term
for all the Indonesians, including both the
Makassans and neighbouring Buginese who
also participated in the voyages. The term,
like the titles archaic spelling of prau for
perahu, reflect colonial era usage. Mamarika
painted the Malay prau, while the Dutch were
still occupying Indonesia.
Nevertheless, the painting is more than just
a half-imagined image of a Makassan boat
re-constructed from communal memory.
The meeting of the two peoples resulted in
the intermingling of spiritual traditions. The

Makassan sailors revered certain locations

along the Arnhem Land coast as sacred and
regularly left offerings of food, goods and
money to the djinn spirits who dwelt there.
The real subject of Mamarikas painting is an
Indigenous sacred site on Bickerton Island,
Groote Eylandt, which is said to have been
a Makassan perahu in ancestral times. The
large circles in the hull are not meant to be
portholes, which Makassan boats lacked, but
allude to holes in certain rocks at the sacred
site of Junbia where it is said the ancestral
perahu anchored before becoming transformed
into the island.
James Bennett is Curator of Asian Art at the Art
Gallery of South Australia

REFERENCES
Bennett, James, 2011, Beneath the Winds: Masterpieces of
Southeast Asian Art from the Art Gallery of South Australia, Art
Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, pp. 46-47
Mountford, Charles, 1956, Records of the American-Australian
scientific expedition to Arnhem Land 1. Art, myth and symbolism,
Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, p.98.

17

A P AIR O F 1 9 T H C E N T U R Y C O M P A N Y P AI N TI N G S F RO M P AT N A AT T H E
N ATIO N AL G ALL E R Y O F V I C TORIA
Carol Cains
he term Company painting refers to
a genre of Indian painting produced
for Europeans and heavily influenced by
European taste (Archer 1992: 11) and the
style or school was named after the various
European trade companies operating in Asia
from the 17th to the mid-19th centuries. The
British were the main patrons of this style of
painting, by virtue of their pervasive presence
in India during the period of the English and
British East India Companies (1600-1857)
after which time this style of painting was
superseded by photography.

Drawn to India in the 17th century by the

promise of vast riches to be acquired through
trade, the British founded the English East
India Company in 1600. Its creation, and that
of the Dutch, French, Danish and Swedish East
India Companies was inspired by the financial
success of Portuguese trade in Asia during the
16th century. The English East India Company
effectively ruled the country from 1757. Their
extensive trade in commodities as varied as
saltpetre, cotton, silk, indigo dye, tea and
opium is mirrored in a concurrent exchange
between British patrons and Indian painters,

demonstrated in the Company style or school.

This article examines a pair of Company
paintings from Patna in the collection of the
National Gallery of Victoria (NGV).
Apart from Surat and Bombay, the English
East India Companys main sites in India were
also the most important centres of Company
painting. These included Patna and Calcutta
in the east, and Masulipatam, Madras and
Trichinopoly in the south. Europeans in
these centres acquired Company paintings as
souvenirs, either to send home to family and
friends or to keep as mementoes of their time
in India. Protestant missionaries also used sets
of images of Hindu deities and temple sites
in their campaign to contest idolatry and
promote Christianity. Each centre produced
a distinctive style of Company painting as
local artists adapted their indigenous style
to satisfy the demands of the local European
community, adjusting their palette and subject
matter and adopting stylistic influences
from European art conveyed by prints and
paintings imported by the English, as well as
by drawings, paintings and prints created by
amateur English artists in India.

This artistic evolution, which combined

distinctive Indian regional painting styles with
European elements, repeated responses by
Indian painters to the aesthetic requirements
of other foreign patrons, such as the Mughal
Empire and the Delhi Sultanate. Artist families
in places such as Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Delhi,
Murshidabad, Patna, Calcutta, Benares and
Lucknow produced such local paintings,
which were hawked around the British
stations or sold to travellers at well-known
halting places on the rivers. Similar paintings
did not develop on a large scale in Rajasthan,
Hyderabad or the Punjab Hills, nor in places
where British cultural influences were less
felt or where lively Indian patronage already
existed. (Archer 1992: 17).
The trade in Company paintings can be seen
as part of the trade in manufactured goods
from India to England, in which the taste of
the European market modified the Indian
product. Indian textiles such as painted and
printed cottons from the Coromandel Coast
and embroidered silk coverlets from Gujarat
provide an interesting parallel. Popular
subjects for Company paintings included

NAUTCH GIRL WITH A MUSICIAN, PATNA, BIHAR, INDIA C 1860, OPAQUE WATER COLOUR AND GOLD ON

TWO MUSICIANS, PATNA, BIHAR, INDIA C 1860, OPAQUE WATER COLOUR AND GOLD ON PAPER.

PAPER. PURCHASED NGV FOUNDATION, 2007. COLLECTION OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF VICTORIA

PURCHASED NGV FOUNDATION, 2007. COLLECTION OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF VICTORIA

18

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

MATCH GIRL, FROM COSTUME OF THE LOWER ORDERS OF LONDON,

BALDWIN AND CO. LONDON, 1820, BUSBY, THOMAS LORD (ARTIST

STANDING FIGURE OF A WOMAN, 17TH CENTURY, INDIA, OPAQUE

AND ENGRAVER), HAND-COLOURED ENGRAVING. COLLECTION

WATER COLOUR AND GOLD ON PAPER. FELTON BEQUEST, 1980.

OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON

COLLECTION OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF VICTORIA

paint religious images and portraits for local

rulers, they also painted new subjects which
were central to the Company painting genre.
It is not surprising that the themes dear
to Company paintings concerned aspects
of Indian life and individuals which were
considered exotic, colourful and striking,
and that their compilation with assiduous
attention to detail was a distinguishing feature
of the Company school. In England in the late
18th century, at the same time that Company
painting for the British in India was developing,
people were beginning to look at the world
around them in a fresh new manner which
has come to be known as the Picturesque
(Archer 1992: 16). Books like Costumes of the
Lower Orders of London, published in 1826,
recorded picturesque details of the apparel of
chimney sweeps, shoe blacks, match girls and
amputee beggars in a series of hand coloured
engravings by Thomas Busby.
sets of portraits of castes and occupations,
procession pictures, sets of images of deities
and religious sites and natural history subjects.
The main stylistic adaptations in Company
paintings were those which enhanced the
naturalism of the image, particularly the use
of shading to model figures and drapery, and
the inclusion of shadows. European prints and
paintings which arrived in India from the time
of the Portuguese had provided exemplars for
shading and modelling and were copied by
Indian artists. In many Company paintings
the naturalism of the costumes and faces is
undermined by awkward poses and figures,
which were generally isolated against a blank
background and thus deprived of context.
Patna (Azimabad), the capital of the
present day state of Bihar, was the site of
an important English East India Company
factory (the name given to Company centres
that incorporated trade headquarters and
storehouses) from 1620. The citys site on the
Ganges River provided easy access to the port
at Calcutta and consequently Patna became
the inland centre for the British in east India
from the first quarter of the 17th century,
mainly trading saltpetre and silk, and later
sugar and opium. After 1800 Patna was also
an important administrative centre for the
Company and by the 19th century the city
was home to a large and diverse European
population, which included employees of the
English East India Company, soldiers, traders,
missionaries, and families. They saw much in
India that they regarded as picturesque and
wanted to record visually, and local artists
realised that this could provide a lucrative
timely replacement for declining local
patronage. While Indian artists continued to

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

A comparison between Busbys images and

the two Company paintings from Patna
dated c. 1860 at the NGV reveals interesting
similarities. The latter are probably part of a
set depicting different occupations, one of the
most popular forms of Company paintings.
The paintings each depict a pair of figures, a
nautch dancer and a musician, and a pair of
musicians. Nautch dancers were professional
dancers who provided entertainment at
Mughal and Rajput courts and for British
patrons. The dance performance was
accompanied by a group of musicians playing
string and percussion instruments such as
those depicted in these paintings, which
include a sarangi (Indian fiddle), a pakhavaj (a
north Indian drum) and cymbals.
The figures display all the important
characteristics of this type of subject in the
Company painting genre. They include paired
figures (often a man and woman) isolated
against a blank background, depicted in a stiff
and posed manner with expressionless faces.
The artist accurately renders costume and
accessories in detail, and although the clothes
and figures are carefully modeled and shaded,
they seem to float above the ground, only
anchored by small, unconvincing shadows.
The modeling recalls European images copied
by Indian artists from the early 17th century.
The figures in Costumes of the Lower Orders
of London also carefully document details of
dress and accessories. Like their Company
painting equivalents, their occupations are
signaled by these details as well as their
poses, although each figures occupation is
further identified by an inscription. Also like
their Indian counterparts, they are depicted in

isolation although there is a horizon indicated

in each work and some images include misty
background details. The figures are anchored
by small shadows beneath their feet and their
clothes and bodies are carefully shaded and
modeled. The palette of the two groups is
very different. One of the characteristics of
Patna painting that differentiated it from other
Company paintings is its clear, bright palette,
redolent in reds and oranges and employing
areas of bright, blueish white pigment. In
contrast, the palette of the English paintings
comprises soft, subdued blues, browns and
greys. Patna paintings also display a distinct
physiognomy evident in these examples.
The theme of pairs of men and women depicting
costumes, customs or occupations had first
appeared in Indian art in a set of mid-16th
century water colours probably commissioned
by a Portuguese patron. A second similar
surviving group, dated 1701-05, was painted
for the Italian traveler Niccolao Manucci (16391717) (Archer 1992; 12-16). These two sets are
the precursors of Company paintings such as
those in the NGV collection and herald their
thematic concerns and, equally importantly,
their function as an inventory or catalogue.
There is a sense that these sets of images
perform in part as a stock take, in the same
way as a Company warehouse register. While
they do not list tangible goods to be traded,
they visually record and order a range of
information that added to the stock of English
knowledge about India, which could function
as a mnemonic, in the case of souvenir images,
or, in the case of deity images collected by
missionaries, as a resource as valuable as
cotton and saltpetre. Later in the 19th century,

19

MAHARANA JAGAT SINGH II AND HIS SARDARS WATCHING A NAUTCH, C. 1748, UDAIPUR, RAJASTHAN, INDIA, OPAQUE
WATER COLOUR AND GOLD ON PAPER. FELTON BEQUEST, 1980. COLLECTION OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF VICTORIA

paintings, and are grouped in various vignettes

that enliven the scene and contextualise the
participants. Similar modelling and shading,
palette, costumes and physiognomy is seen in
each example.
A final comparison serves to highlight some
of the adjustments made by Indian artists
when painting in the Company style. The
NGV collection includes a painting from the
Mewar kingdom in Rajasthan, which shows
a nautch dance performance in the Udaipur
palace before Maharana Jagat Singh II and his
sardars (princes, leaders, nobles). Dated 1748 it
is an example of a painting in a predominantly
Indian style: the kingdom preserved its
Hindu identity even though it was nominally
part of the Mughal Empire. Therefore even
though its artists incorporated some Mughal
and European stylistic elements, including
modelling and shading, they retained aspects
of the pre Mughal Indian painting style,
including areas of flat, dense colour and
figures delineated with a black outline.
The painting illustrates a lively nautch girl
and her musicians in the foreground, their
instruments identical to those shown in the
NGV Company paintings. The Maharana,
shown haloed and larger than the other
figures to denote his status, partakes of a
hookah like the Indian gentleman in the
Patna painting. Also similar is the grouping
of courtiers around the dancer. However,
differences between the Udaipur and Patna
nautch scenes include the inconsistent spatial
recession in the Udaipur palace architecture
and the lack of modelling and shadows in
its figures which, with the exception of the
dancer and musicians, also show a lack of
animation. Similar information is conveyed,
although in a less naturalistic fashion.

International Exhibitions provided a platform

for presenting Indian goods to potential
markets. After the Melbourne International
Exhibition in 1880 a group of clay figures
representing different castes, occupations
and religious sects which had been included
in the Indian exhibit was gifted to the NGV.
The group can be seen as a three dimensional
equivalent to sets of Company paintings
depicting similar subjects, and includes a
nautch dancer and a musician.
Not all Company paintings depicted portraits
in isolation. Nautch dance performances seem
to have been a popular subject in many centres
of Company paintings, probably because they
were particularly picturesque and recorded

20

an occasion which foreigners found especially

charming and exotic, as corroborated by extant
British and Indian images and British diaries
from the 18th and 19th centuries. A painting
in the collection of the Victoria and Albert
Museum by Shiva Lal (c 1817-1871), one of the
most important artists in Patna, depicts, as it
states: Dancing-girls entertaining an Indian
gentleman of Patna city who is seated under
a red canopy; a courtyard in the background.
Dated to the same period as the NGV paintings
(c. 1860), the courtyard and canopy are shown
receding from the viewer, although their
shadows do not correspond to those beneath
the dancers, musicians and audience members
grouped in the foreground. Individual figures
correspond closely to those in the NGV

Scenes such as those depicted in Shiva Lal and

the Mewar artists paintings place the nautch
dancer within a performative and spatial
context - a narrative presentation which is
in contrast to the isolated specimen of the
nautch dancer and her musicians depicted in
the NGV paintings. The intent in the latter is
rather to record a type not an event, as part
of a categorisation of the unfamiliar: a typical
concern of the Company painting genre which
nonetheless resonated with similar sets of
images from Europe, such as the engravings
of Costumes of the Lower Orders of London.
Carol Cains is Curator of Asian Art at the NGV
International.

REFERENCE
Archer, Mildred, 1992. Company Paintings: Indian Paintings of the
British Period, Victoria and Albert Museum, London

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

T H E S P R E AD O F I N DIA N R E LI G IO U S B E LI E F S : A F IR S T C E N T U R Y B U R M E S E S T E L E
Pamela Gutman

ndia and Southeast Asia were connected

by trade and exchange networks from the
middle of the first millennium BCE through
routes which either hugged the coast of the
Bay of Bengal or crossed the ocean from
ports in what are now Bengal and Andhra
Pradesh. Important entrepts along the Thai
peninsula would, in the early centuries of
our era, link with routes through the Straits
of Malacca and thence to southern Cambodia,
Vietnam and southern China. Along the
routes travelled not only traders but also
monks, brahmans, artisans and even circuses.

Of course India was not a unified country

but home to a number of mature states and
chiefdoms which would develop into states.
The earliest, the iron age Mauryan empire
(322185 BCE) from its capital at Pataliputra
in modern Bihar conquered polities to its
west and south, the emperor Aoka (304
- 232 BCE) propagating Buddhism as an
instrument of state formation. Succeeding
kingdoms also transformed local protective
anthropomorphic deities, yaksas, regarded
as guardians of the earth and the fertilityproducing waters below, into a cult endorsed
by the elite, one which would enhance
the power of the ruler and assure his

function of guaranteeing the fertility and

prosperity of the state. These would change
from localised deities to heroic Brahmanic
divinities identified with the ruler belonging
to cults practised across political frontiers.
It was around this time that iron working
was adopted in Southeast Asia and was
responsible for increased agricultural
intensity, consequent population growth and
militarism. Local chiefs justified their claim
to power through ritual in which a stone
or boulder was considered to concentrate
the active power of the soil: it was not the
seat of the god but the god himself cosubstantially. Ritual developed to control
this power, to ensure the continued fertility
of the land. The spirit of the stone passes
into the officiant of the ritual, who could be
a shaman or priest or a chief, identified with
the god for the duration of the ceremony.
As the wealth and power of a chief increased
it was necessary to find ways in which to
justify his hold over the land and divergent
groups of people, and for this he turned to
Indian concepts of religion and power, subtly
adapted to local conditions. This development
is evidenced by the earliest sculpture and other

artefacts found in Southeast Asia, facilitated by

long-established trade connections with India.
The earliest indications of Indian beliefs being
transferred to Southeast Asia are amulets
in the shape of the triratna, (literally three
jewels), the symbol of the Buddha, Dharmma
and Sangha. The Buddhist canon makes a
concerted attempt to inculcate moral and
ethical values among the laity through loyalty
to the triratna and so the symbol is prominent
in religious contexts, as at the Great Stupa at
Sanchi in India in the first century CE.
The amulets, usually of semi-precious stones,
are found together with manufactured
beads and other symbolic objects depicting
auspicious symbols such as the auspicious
tripartite srivatsa, which denotes prosperity
and fertility, and animals associated with
royalty like the lion and the horse. These were
believed to bring luck to the wearer. Identical
amulets are found worn by yakss on early
Buddhist stupas in India. Recent excavations
have unearthed production sites with
unfinished examples showing that when these
proved popular they began to be manufactured
in Southeast Asia, possibly initially by Indian
craftsmen, and exported along the trade

THE SRI KSETRA WARRIOR/THRONE STELE. SANDSTONE. HEIGHT 135 CM. IMAGE: BOB HUDSON, COMPOSITE, AFTER ARCHAEOLOGY DEPARTMENT, MYANMAR, PHOTOS

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

21

BEADS, SEALS AND AMULETS, INCLUDING TRIRATNA, WHEEL AND BODHI LEAF MOTIFS, FROM SITES IN NAKHON SI THAMMARAT,
THAILAND. PHOTO: COURTESY SUTHI RATANA FOUNDATION 2013

a much-abraded Buddhist symbol which

appears to be the upper portion of a triratna;
the form of the symbol here compares with
depictions at Sanchi and Amaravati. The throne
denotes the Enlightenment of the Buddha at
Bodhgaya, representing the vajrsana, the seat
on which the event took place.
Here it is depicted within a pavilion
supported by four slender pillars surmounted
by a canopy made of cloth. The throne itself
shares many of the characteristics of early
Amaravati thrones: it has ornate legs, possibly
with animal feet, and a footstool with a
symbol which may be a vajra, indicating the
vajrsana. However, it is no longer within
the open air Bodhgaya shrine as depicted
at Bharhut and Sanchi, but in what appears
to be a reproduction of a shrine made in
portable materials, wood and textiles.

routes. Seals bearing the inscription deya

dhamma gift of merit are plentiful at early
urban sites in Burma, Thailand and Vietnam
further indicating the spread of Buddhism.
A two-faced stele from Sri Ksetra in Burma
(Gutman and Hudson), one of a number of
early urban sites which can now be dated
from the 1st century CE, illustrates how
Indian concepts of religion and power were
reinterpreted in Southeast Asia. One side of
the stele depicts three men. The central figure,
apparently a leader or a cult figure, holds a
massive weapon and is flanked by smaller
figures that also hold symbols of power. The
other side shows a throne surmounted by
a canopy with two women in attitudes of
respect on either side.
The three figures on the first side can be seen
to be stylistically closely related to the Sanchi
yaksas. They are depicted frontally, in a similar
yaksa stance, one hand on hip. The figures are
solid, with firmly rounded flesh. They wear
comparable tri-partite hair arrangements and
their ornaments are similar: multiple bracelets
or armbands, wide necklaces, large round
earrings hanging to the shoulders. All wear
dhotis tied in front, the ends falling between
the legs. The wide flat faces of the stele
figures too share the physiognomy found
in the pre-Satavahana phase at Amaravati,
dated to the 1st century CE, and to the 1st
century reliefs at Kanganhalli, a Buddhist
site in Karnataka, linked to the eastern ports
by riverine routes. And like earlier yaksas,
the stele figures have prominent bellies
illustrating their promise of fecundity. The

22

figure on the right holds a wheel, a cakra, the

potent weapon of war with possible solar
connotations, mounted on a stick, while the
figure on the left holds a garudadhvaja, (Garuda
banner) which in later Indian iconography
was to become an attribute of Vishnu.
This side of the stele suggests a close
connection with an Indian pre-Kushana form
of Vasudeva-Krishna worship of the early
Bhgavata tradition, which originated from
the speculative thinking of the orthodox
Brhmana texts. In 1st century India the
important school of the Bhgavata (devotees
of the Blessed), also known as Pcartra
or Stvata, had elevated Vsudeva-Krishna,
originally a tribal hero, to the rank of Supreme
God by identifying him with the Vedic Vishnu.
It is likely that the Sri Ksetra stele is connected
to this tradition, but reinterpreted within
a Southeast Asian context in which ritual
invoking the power of the soil and sometimes
the ancestors was conducted by or on behalf
of the chief. In the early urban context the
ruler, already familiar with developments
in Indian religious beliefs, sought to adapt
them to earlier practices in order to enhance
his power. With the arrival of bhakti beliefs,
in which the devotee is actively involved
in the worship of the divinity, a leader
could achieve a close relation with the
god of his affection, in this case VsudevaKrishna in the eyes of his people, thereby
offering them the means of establishing
their own relationship with the divinity.
On the other side of the stele, the apex depicts

The women on either side of the throne stand

in an attitude of respect, the free hand touching
the elbow of the inner arm, which reaches to
support or touch the throne. This gesture is
quite different from the dramatic postures
of women worshipping at Amaravati,
suggesting a more conservative society and a
local ritual. Like the Amaravati women they
are naked to the waist, but their garments
are tied at the waist with the ends falling
between the legs, as do the mens garments.
They wear heavy torques around the necks,
like the males on the other side. Their hair
is not elaborately dressed as is usual in early
Indian sculpture, but falls straight over the
shoulders. Their identity is unclear. They may
be related to the royal figure on the other side
of the stele, queens who patronised Buddhism.
How, then, was imagery from Sanchi and
Amaravati transported to Burma? Metalusing societies on both sides of the Bay of
Bengal had been linked through trade over
the last half of the first millennium BCE,
during which time urban and ritual centres
along the trade routes had been developing.
By the 1st century CE the Sanchi area was
incorporated into the Satavahana empire,
with its base in the Deccan. The Satavahanas
in the Deccan patronised both Brahman and
Buddhist establishments. The ancient town of
Vidisha, some 10 kilometres from Sanchi, was
situated on the major trading routes linking
northwest India and the Ganges valley with
the Deccan, whose ports on the east and west
coasts had a long history of trade with Ceylon
and Southeast Asia.
Buddhism had been spreading through this
area since Mauryan times, and by the 1st
century CE the monastic establishments
were intimately connected with this trade,

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

accumulating wealth through donations and

interest from money lending and organising its
redistribution. Buddhism, which had become
institutionalised in the post-Mauryan period,
had already been successful in pioneering
newly-developing regions in Andhra and
elsewhere. The Sangha, once established,
was well-equipped to provide practical help
to society, and monks could interact with
outside groups. It was thus attractive to the
leaders of newly-emerging polities, and soon
followed the trade routes to Burma.
Concurrently, the rulers of these polities were
adopting the Bhgavata cult and identifying
with its heroes, notably Vasudeva-Krishna.
This devotional cult, as it emerged, was
also conducive to proselytising, and was
developing in importance in both the economic
and political spheres. Its adherents were not
as closely tied to the limits of the caste system,
believing that anyone could achieve salvation.
There
was
no
dichotomy
between
Brahmanism and Buddhism in ancient India
or in the countries culturally influenced by
India. While the lay community followed the
precepts and doctrines of the Sangha in its
search for salvation, its daily life continued
to be governed by Brahmanical rituals.

Buddhism was unable to successfully resolve

the question of providing ritual identity for
its lay followers. In contrast to the detailed
rules laid down for the monastic order, the
laity was left to adopt the Brahmanical rites
and rituals for its day-to-day functioning.
Through the stele, itself a development from
animist practices, the chief now asserted his
power through Brahmanic ritual associated
with a proto-vaishnavite cult, promising his
people salvation, power, wealth and fertility
- but to be sure of this he, or his queens, also
appropriated Buddhism, which assisted in
stabilizing the evolving society and indeed
promised much the same.
Dr Pamela Gutman is an Honorary Associate in the
Department of Art History and Film Studies at the
University of Sydney.

REFERENCE
Gutman, P. and B. Hudson A First Century Stele from Sriksetra in
Bulletin dcole Franaise dExtrme Orient, forthcoming.

LA U N C H O F TAA S A S Y D N E Y C E RA M I C S S T U D Y G RO U P, 4 A P RIL 2 0 1 3
John Millbank
The inaugural meeting of TAASAs Sydney
Ceramics Study Group took place at the
Powerhouse Museum, with around 45
members braving the driving autumn rain
to attend. This first meeting was themed as
a show and tell, inviting attendees to bring
their own pieces to be viewed and discussed.
Nearly half of the people who came took up
this invitation, yielding an extensive and
varied array of pieces and something of a
challenge to the moderator for the evening,
Dr John Yu, to ensure that everybody had a
chance to contribute.
Dr Yu opened the proceedings and led off
with his own contribution, a varied group
of five blue and white pieces: small Chinese
dishes for the domestic and export markets,
and two Vietnamese pieces, including an
example of a prized bleu dHu piece from
the 18th-19th century.
The theme of export wares continued in
other contributions. There were several

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

pieces of Zhangzhou (Swatow) ware

from Fujian collected by members in
places as diverse as Japan, Java and the
Philippines. One of the contributors, Yuki
Sato, talked to the history of the maritime
trade which supported their production
and distribution. Other export wares
on display included pieces for more
specialized markets in South East Asia:
Bencharong porcelain made in China for
the Thai market and Peranakan wares
commissioned by well-to-do families of
the Straits Chinese community. There were
also shipwreck pieces, including a chickenshaped flask found by one member in a
Hoi An shop and authenticated on the spot
by an archaeologist from the shipwreck
excavation.
There were SE Asian wares from Cambodia,
Laos and Burma, and Chinese wares for
domestic use, including a Song dynasty
whiteware box containing its original weiqi
counters. There were also several pieces

presented for identification, each of which

carried its own interesting story of acquisition.
All present expressed satisfaction that this
group had now become active, fulfilling
a need for exchange of information and
experiences among ceramics collectors similar
to that which has existed for many years for
TAASA members with textile interests.

JOHN YU PRESENTING AT THE SYDNEY CERAMICS

STUDY GROUP MEETING. PHOTO: MIN-JUNG KIM

23

I N T H E P U B LI C DO M AI N : T R A D E C E R A M I C S I N T H E A G N S W
Jackie Menzies

he display of 120 Asian export ceramics

in the 13m long wall case in the Art
Gallery of New South Wales conjures a
world of shipwrecks, merchant trade, and
exotic social rituals. The ceramics, mainly
Chinese, vary from grave goods, everyday
bowls and platters, to valued treasures. The
dense display, modelled on the crowded
wall displays of early collections such as the
Topkapi in Istanbul, is organised by time
frame, country of production and market
destination, presenting an overview of
shifting markets and tastes from the 10th
to 19th centuries. Its focus is on the ceramic
trade amongst Asian countries: the so-called
Nanhai (Ch: Southern Seas) trade which
existed long before Western traders entered
the lucrative market in the 1500s (see TAASA
Review Volume 13, no 1, 2004).

MONTEITH, CHINA, QING DYNASTY, KANGXI PERIOD,

JINGDEZHEN OR FUJIAN WARE LOTUS POND, CHINA, YUAN

C1710-20, PORCELAIN WITH UNDERGLAZE BLUE DECORATION,

DYNASTY, 1300S, PORCELAIN WITH QINGBAI GLAZE, 4 X 10.5 CM.

15.6 X 32.P CM. ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES,

ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES, EDWARD AND GOLDIE

GIFT OF MRS MARGARET STRUTT-DAVIES 1984

STERNBERG CHINESE ART PURCHASE FUND 1999. PHOTO AGNSW

attention both because of the size of its cargo

of 9th century Chinese ceramics and because
the ship was an Arab dhow, the first one of
its kind found in maritime excavations, and
proof that there was trade between Arabia
and China as early as the 9th century. The
cargo comprised mainly ceramics, over 60,000
pieces, as well as lead ingots, star anise, bronze
mirrors and cast iron vessels. Many of the
ceramics were everyday bowls with minimal
decoration in the green and cream palette of
Changsha wares. As with the examples on
show, the glaze on many has degraded due to
the length of immersion in sea water.

Chinese prototypes, and, less familiar, Hasami

ware celadons from Japan.

Most of the ceramics were given to the

Gallery by generous patrons, many of whom
collected their ceramics in their original
market destination at opportune times such
as when grave goods were excavated in
the Philippines in the 1960s, or when the
contents of a new shipwreck were released
on the market. Ceramics which flooded the
market in one decade were rarely seen in the
following decade, a sage reminder to acquire
(hopefully legally) excavated objects as soon
as they appear.
Amongst the examples of qingbai on display,
a rare, yet quite delightful miniature piece
of four boys playing in a lotus pond (ex
F.W.Bodor Collection) is outstanding.
Technically this keenly observed model is
significant for its innovative use of brown
iron spots to accentuate the boys hair and
to add movement to the surface. This piece
and others nearby, all small to comply with
their role as grave goods in the Philippines,
were produced at kilns at Jingdezhen in
Jiangxi province and in Fujian. The qingbai
trade to the Philippines and Indonesia that
first flourished in the Yuan dynasty petered
out through the 1600s as Christianity spread
through the Philippines after the arrival of the
Spaniards in the 1500s, and as Islam spread
through Indonesia.
Several pieces on display are from cargo
of ships sunk in this lucrative trade such as
the Beilitung shipwreck, found in 1998 off
Beilitung Island on the east coast of Sumatra
in the Java Sea. The discovery attracted much

24

A large class of popular export ceramics

from the Song through Ming dynasties were
greenwares produced at the Longquan kilns of
Zhejiang . The range of shapes includes bowls,
vases, platters, ewers and jarlets. On display is
a selection of large shallow dishes, the focus
for the communal meal gatherings central
to Indonesian society. Design was minimal
and tended to be carved, incised or moulded.
A fascinating, local use of small Longquan
jarlets is demonstrated by the pair with carved
wooden stoppers which exemplify a practice
unique to Sumatra where such containers were
used to store pupuk, a potent protective mixture
prepared by the datu, men imbued with ritual
and magical powers, for application to objects
and sculptures.
Power and politics impacted on ceramic
production through the centuries. For example
huge volumes of export trade to Southeast Asia
were encouraged by the Mongol rulers of Yuan
dynasty China (1279-1368), while political and
social unrest concomitant with the collapse of
the Ming dynasty in the late 16th, early 17th
centuries saw other countries stepping in to
fill orders that Chinese kilns were unable to
fill. Several examples are on show, such as
Vietnamese blue and white dishes inspired by

Then from the 16th century came the

Europeans first the Portuguese, then the
Dutch, English and other Europeans. Huge
cargoes of porcelain were shipped to their
home markets to satisfy what sometimes
equated to a craze for specific ceramic types.
This enormous ceramic trade to Europe is not
well represented in the Gallerys collection.
However many Western collections, such as
Chinese export porcelain in the Peabody Essex
Museum, have wondrous displays of export
ceramics destined for European markets (see
p25 for my review of this collections newly
published catalogue).
The Art Gallerys collection does contain
a fine example of a less familiar and more
idiosyncratic Western shape that of a
monteith bowl. The Peabody Essex catalogue
details the origin of this name (p125): This
form is said to have gotten its name from
an Oxford student, Monsieur Monteith
(Monteigh), who wore a scalloped cloak.
The monteith, which first appeared in silver,
was designed to chill wine glasses which
were cradled on the notched rim, their bowls
suspended in iced water. It is doubtful that
the Chinese decorator, in choosing to decorate
the interior with the eight Buddhist emblems,
was cognisant of the purpose of this strange
piece ordered for the foreign market.
Jackie Menzies is the former Head of Asian Art at the
Art Gallery of New South Wales.

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

B OO K R E V I E W: C H I N E S E E X P O R T C E R A M I C S
Jackie Menzies

appreciation if we believe the satirists, for

Chinese ceramics. The essay understandably
includes American patronage along with that
of English and European royalty and, later,
the merchant classes. The second essay by
Rose Kerr details the production of porcelain,
illustrated with Guangzhou imitations of the
famous set of 20 paintings of the stages of
porcelain production commissioned in 1743
by the Emperor Qianlong from the painter
Tang Yin.

Treasures of Chinese Export Ceramics

from the Peabody Essex Museum
William R. Sargent, with an essay by Rose Kerr.
Peabody Essex Museum, 2012,
Distributed by Yale University Press.
RRP USD$65.00, hardcover, 556 pp.

Founded in 1799, the Peabody Essex

Museum in Salem, Massachusetts or PEM
(as it is more succinctly referred to) contains
fascinating collections given by wealthy
merchants involved in the extensive trade
between America and China. In 2003 the PEM
completed a striking museum transformation
with the gallery spaces renovated and
expanded. An entirely new expansion will
be completed in 2017 to make it the ninth
largest museum in North America. The
PEM is rightly proud of its large collections
of Asian export art, the consequence of an
amalgamation with the China Trade Museum
in 1984 and the Essex Institute in 1993. As a
result the PEM now has an extraordinary total
of over 19,000 works of Asian export furniture,
lacquer, paintings, textiles, carvings, silver
and ceramics, of which more than 6,600 are
ceramics (p28).

The essays are followed by 22 chapters of

catalogue with the ceramics, grouped by
type and date, ranging from Early Blue and
White 1400-1650 to Porcelain decorated in
Europe. In between, classic types such as
Kraak ware, Zhangzhou (previously Swatow)
ware, and Yixing wares are covered, often
with recently acquired excellent examples.
Each entry details provenance and related
works, a prodigious job when one considers
the publications and collections relating to
Chinese export ceramics.
Particularly fascinating are those entries
which source the European designs, often
engravings, used for decoration. While
some might blanch at the thought of eating
from plates decorated with scenes of the
Crucifixion, Sargent assures us that while
the concept of decorating dinner services,
beer mugs, and punchbowls with political,
historical, mythological, or religious imagery
is at odds with modern taste, this was not so
in the eighteenth century, when hardly any
event could be considered inappropriate as
a motif for a tea or dinner service.Some
designs, such as the so-called Scotsmen plates,
were so controversial and specific that they
could not have been displayed in company
that was anything other than sympathetic
(p 319).

Now comes this impressive book, a selection

of 287 ceramic pieces with meticulously
documented entries providing technical
details and cultural context for each object.
The book is as physically weighty (nearly 4
kilograms) as its research is prodigious.

The four appendices of this thorough book

include a useful one on armorials for those
readers keen to ascertain their familys
porcelain heritage, while the exhaustive
bibliography covers nine pages, and the
careful glossary five pages.

The book opens with two essays one by

Sargent, a ceramicist and curator who has
worked on Asian export art for some 30
years; the other by the eminent Chinese
ceramics scholar Rose Kerr. Sargents essay
tracks Western appreciation, sometimes over

These commendable details, together with

the empathetically photographed ceramics,
ensure this is a definitive reference book
for lovers of Chinese porcelain. The value
accorded this collection is acknowledged by
the research and care that has gone into this

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

sumptuous publication, including the cover

with its use of raised gold lettering for the
title, and the artful placement of two rather
bizarre carp tureens dating to 1760-80.
I must admit to being drawn to gifts of the
early 19th century since they elicit the sense
of wonder and adventure their donors must
have felt in being exposed to the world of
China. For example a figure of a monk (cat.
269) was given in 1819 by the minister of
Salems East Church, the Rev. William Bentley,
who had received it from his friend Captain
Hodges, Commander of many of the ships
that went to China and other ports. The figure
is a fine example of the genre of 18th century,
unfired clay, nodding-head Chinese figures
which, Sargent advises, were extraordinarily
popular in the West: as curiosities that
revealed the dress and customs of the Chinese
people (p. 483). Being of unfired clay and
hence very fragile, few such figures have
survived to be part of the narrative of Western
taste for Chinese ceramics.
This book is a pleasure to read, full of
fascinating details concerning taste, ships,
their routes and ports, the sources for pictorial
designs and the Western clients for whom
cost was no object. There are designs where
the awkwardness of drawing, the distortion
of forms and the English misspellings evoke
the bewilderment felt by the hapless Chinese
decorator who had to grapple with images
of the architecture, clothes, religion and
languages of cultures and lands beyond his
experience. Export porcelain is proof that trade
and the desire for curious objects, and profit,
can overcome cultural incomprehension.
Jackie Menzies is the former Head of Asian Art at the
Art Gallery of New South Wales.

25

C OLL E C TOR S C H OI C E : A C O L L E C T I O N O F F I L I P I N O S A N T O S
Pamela Walker with Ron Walker
SAN ROQUE IN MINICHAPEL, PHILIPPINES C. LATE 19TH CENTURY, WOOD, GESSO, PAINT. PRIVATE COLLECTION, CANBERRA ACT

ne corner of our house is given over to

about a dozen wooden figures of Filipino
household saints of varying sizes, the fruits
of two generations of collecting. Most are on
shelves; two statues of the Virgin standing
on their crescent moons, robes fluttering,
hang on the wall. It doesnt really look like a
shrine, more like a gathering of individuals,
each focused on some intense inner life,
but nevertheless also gazing directly out
at the world around them. All of them
were carved in the 19th century or earlier,
before the importation of mass-produced
plaster versions which were enthusiastically
acquired, leaving many of the old wooden
saints to be consigned to oblivion - or the shed
out the back; one of our saints has the remains
of a wasp cocoon in the crook of his arm.

The fact that most people living on a group

of islands in Southeast Asia came to own and
cherish Christian images is of course due to
Spains conquest of the Philippines in the mid
16th century. Spanish rule lasted until 1898,
ample time to leave behind a tangible legacy
in many fields, including art.
A massive push to proselytise by the Catholic
Church meant lots of church building and
decoration for which local carvers were
increasingly employed, using as models
the sculptures of saints in Renaissance and
rococo styles brought in by the Spanish
conquerors. As time went on, these combined
with Chinese and native Filipino influences
to produce Christian religious sculpture of
sometimes extraordinary quality and energy.
So one of the figures of the Virgin hanging
on our wall has a distinctly Chinese look to
the flow of her robes and a couple have had
their noses flattened, presumably after the
nationalist uprising of 1896, to make them
look more like indigenous Filipinos.
Our collection started with my husbands
second overseas posting with the Australian
foreign service in Manila in 1963, before we
met. Being a good mothers son, an avid
collector of many things, he bought one or two
wooden santo sculptures from a small antique
shop which sold little else and was run by an
old man and his daughter in Ermita, by then
an area of post-war buildings beginning to
look run-down in comparison with the newer
areas of Manila. Most of the dealers santos
were made of wood, but there were a few
there in ivory, mostly out of Rons price range.

26

In any case, his interest from the very

beginning was in the wooden popular
sculptures. He felt that they had an artistic
conviction and energy lacking in many of
the more formal and to him less engaging
and artistically convincing high art wood
and ivory sculptures that were closer to their
Spanish originals. Obviously the skills of
local sculptors varied enormously; sometimes
householders even carved their own figures,
others who could afford it commissioned a
local carver. Predictably his mother on seeing
his santos, bought a large number herself,
which encouraged him to continue his own
collection. After a while he became interested

in local details like the design of the bases of

the sculptures and started to collect carvings
of San Roque - the saint who protects against
the plague and other devastating diseases from different parts of the Philippines.
Our interest in santos runs parallel with
our interest in what weve come to call the
peripheries the outer edges of strong
cultural and artistic styles, very often
deriving from conquest, where the newly
dominant culture is modified by the locals
as it percolates down through the population
and away from the capital. In these areas in
particular, old culture and styles persist in the

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

new and change it. The results are often called

provincial and looked down upon because
they seem degenerate in comparison to the
original high art models, but for us these
peripheral styles often push the boundaries of
those models in new and vibrant ways as is
the case with santos.
Saints in the popular style can be stocky, often
wearing tunics and leggings with neatly-tied
belts around their waists or tall with flowing
robes inspired by the Spanish sculptures.
You can sometimes see, such as in one of
our figures, that of San Jose, the shape of the
original tree-branch dictating the cylindrical
form of the finished work, perhaps in an
animistically inspired belief that the spirit of
the tree would remain as part of the sculpted
saint. The figures usually look straight before
them, though the Holy Family tend to gesture
towards each other and the statues of the
Immaculate Conception can show baroqueinspired curves. Hands and sometimes arms
were carved separately and so sleeves can

end distressingly in stumps where the hand

is missing. Colour, laid on gesso and often
renewed by the owners with devotion but
little idea of moderation, was originally
very bright and often clashing. Ignorance of
monkish orders results in San Vicente Ferrer,
a Dominican, appearing in a bright sky-blue
robe which gives that rather dour saint with
his hair shirt and mortification rites an almost
cheerful air.
The San Roque tableau is the only one of its
kind weve seen. The saint, with the angel
who cured him of the plague and the dog who
each day brought him bread, stands in front
of his house in the forest and lifts his tunic to
display the plague sore that infected him while
he was ministering to the plague-stricken.
Significantly underlining the warm humanity
of the saint, the door of his distant house is
open. The whole is enclosed in a shrine with
a small box for alms in the front. The colours
are vivid and the figures stand out before the
blue, tree-entwined background. Only the

dog seems emotionally connected to anyone

else in the scene: the angel and the saint gaze
out at us as if waiting for us to react to them,
send them a prayer perhaps. As so often with
these figures, the purpose and meaning of the
sculpture is completed by the worshipper.
Inevitably the collection grows more slowly
now, even with the addition of some of
Rons mothers santos. Not surprisingly
it still consists exclusively of santos in the
popular style. As time went on we found
them in unlikely places like auction rooms
in Canberra, down on the South Coast, in
Hong Kong and in New York, where there
was a dealer in Asian art who loved them.
Ron still treasures a small kneeling figure of
Mary Magdalene with glass eyes and hair
flowing down her back, a gift from the dealer
in Manila where it all began.

AR M C H AIR TRA V E L TO TAA S A S A G M

Sandra Forbes
Around 45 members were present at
TAASAs 2013 Annual General Meeting,
held on 17 April at the Sydney Mechanics
School of Arts. This may be a record
attendance although theres little doubt
that the drawcard of the evening was
not really the Societys annual activities,
rather the scheduled post-meeting speaker,
Claudia Hyles, and her topic Passages to
India and the Armchair Traveller.
But first, the AGM. Gill Greens Presidents
Report outlined the principal activities of
the Society for the previous year: publication
of four issues of TAASA Review (Vol. 21,
Nos.1-4) and the organisation of events
in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra. She
thanked all members of the Management,
Publications, Events, Membership and
Website Development committees for their
input, in particular Josefa Green, editor of the
TAASA Review, and Ann Guild, Treasurer.
Ann Guild presented the audited Financial
Report for the year ended 31 December
2012, which showed that the Society had
made a small overall loss, but still retained
a healthy surplus. Election of members of
the Management Committee was next on
the Agenda. The President advised that

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

four members had come to the end of their

elected terms - Sabrina Snow, Christina
Sumner, Min-Jung Kim and Jocelyn Chey.
Christina and Min-Jung were re-elected
for three year terms; Sabrina and Jocelyn
had decided to stand down, and were very
warmly thanked by the President for their
many years of service.
Todd Sunderman, appointed for one year
in 2012, was elected for a three-year term
and will take over the job of Treasurer from
Ann Guild, who remains chair of the Events
Committee (see p2 for all current TAASA
Committee members).
The meeting then approved the awarding
of an Honorary Life Membership to Sandra
Forbes, in particular for her eight years as
Editor of TAASA Review. General business
followed, including the recent encouraging
interest shown by members in the formation
of a Ceramics Study Group in Sydney (see
report p23)
After refreshments, speaker Claudia Hyles
was introduced by Committee member
Ann Proctor. Claudia, a foundation TAASA
Life Member based in Canberra, is a
writer, literary reviewer and independent

researcher. Her long love affair with the

Indian sub-continent - since 1968 she has
visited India more than 30 times was clear
from her talk and its particularly fascinating
illustrations.
Claudias topics ranged widely, from textiles
to books, from architecture to the Indian
Mutiny. Describing her early introductions
to India both actual and literary, she showed
us photos of her teenage self dressed 70s
style on her first visit as an exchange student,
and of her early copy of E.M.Forsters A
passage to India with charming cover sketch.
Among her topics was the little-known
work of architect Burley Griffin in Lucknow,
where he designed both a town palace and a
country palace for the Rajah of Jahangirabad
as well as the University Library. We heard
about chikan-kari, the textile technique
for which Lucknow is famous and which
reminds the aficionado of the jail screens of
Moghul architecture. And to supplement
her erudite and absorbing reminiscences,
Claudia brought along some of her own
textiles which members were able to view at
the conclusion of her talk.
Thats how to be sure you have a quorum at
an Annual General Meeting.

27

B OO K R E V I E W: A R T S O F V I E T N A M
Ann Proctor

carefully analyses the development of the arts

throughout the dynastic period, drawing out
the distinctive ability of Vietnamese artists and
artisans to adapt, innovate and incorporate
changing belief systems and motifs over this
1,000 year span. The first chapter, dealing with
art and history of the pre-dynastic period, sets
the ground for an understanding of these later
developments.

Arts of Viet Nam 1009-1945

Kerry Nguyen-Long
The Gioi Publishers, H Noi, 2013
RRP AUS$55, softcover, 316 pages

Until the publication of this volume, no book

in English has dealt so completely with the
development of Vietnamese art during the
Vietnamese dynastic periods from 1009 to1945.
Admittedly there have been books dealing
with separate categories of artistic production
such as ceramics and painting, as well as
catalogues accompanying specific exhibitions,
but none have so comprehensively presented
the development of the art of the majority
Kinh Vietnamese.
Nguyen-Long, who is a contributing editor to
the journal Arts of Asia, has drawn on many
Vietnamese writings previously inaccessible to
the English speaker; on recent archaeological
research including that carried out at the H Noi
citadel, and on her own extensive research and
writings. Her co-authored book on Vietnamese
Blue and White Ceramics was reviewed in the
TAASA Review of June 2002. The reader benefits
greatly from the depth of her experience.
Furthermore, the time that she spent living in
Hue, associated there with the Royal Museum,
allows for a more informed understanding of
the final Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945).
A driving motivation to produce this book
was, as the author states, her frustration
at the often disregard, total omission or
perfunctory handling of the arts of Vietnam
in publications. Many earlier writings have
perpetuated a view that Vietnamese art is
merely a poor copy of Chinese or Indian
prototypes, frequently repeating inaccurate
or biased colonial attitudes. This book

28

The book is structured so that each chapter

summarises the significant historical context
and the philosophical climate of the period
under discussion and relates how the social
climate affected the art and architecture of
each dynasty. Sculpture, ceramics, metal work,
painting, lacquer ware, wood block printing,
inlay, stone and wood carvings, furniture and
fashion are all discussed. Although copiously
illustrated, the readers understanding
would be enhanced by the inclusion of the
dimensions of art works and their location,
which are generally not provided with the
text accompanying the images.
A constant theme throughout this book is that
of Buddhism as a thread defining Vietnamese
culture, due to its persistent and pragmatic
openness to pre-existing ideas. Another
is the ability of ruling regimes to combine
Confucian and Buddhist ideas, as evidenced
through the artistic motifs of the dragon and
Bodhi leaf appearing in varying styles across
the centuries.
This publication traces a number of
previously neglected developments: the
history of handicraft associations from the
L (1009-1225) to the Nguyen dynasties and
that of painting over the same time frame.
The author explores the arts that were
produced both for the court and for local
patrons through handicraft associations;
the communal efforts of these organisations
is reflected in the accessibility and human
scale of the works they produced which were
generally always close to nature. Handicraft
units working for the courts to fulfil social
and religious obligations were disbanded by
the French in 1862.

ravages of conflict and weather none of the

earliest examples survive, Nguyen-Longs
account counteracts the view perpetuated in
many writings that painting did not exist as
an art form in Vietnam prior to the arrival
of the French. Certainly oil painting was not
practiced before the introduction of French
influence but this particular colonial opinion
is typical of many of the misconceptions
perpetuated about art in Vietnam.
For its breadth of research and scholarship,
this book is a most valuable resource for those
interested in Vietnamese art in particular and
Asian art in general.
Dr Ann Proctor is an art historian with a particular
interest in Vietnam.

Of particular interest are the references

to painting which go back one thousand
years and continue throughout history.
For instance, L dynasty stele inscriptions
describe paintings of beautiful scenery and
Buddhist imagery. Although due to the

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

R E C E N T TAA S A A C TI V ITI E S

TAA S A M E M B E R S DIAR Y
J U NE 2013 AU GU S T 2013
Sydney private collection viewing
for members Saturday 27 July

FROM BEGINNER TO EXPERT:

A TAASA SYMPOSIUM, 9 March 2013.
Margaret White
This was a wonderfully informative and
enjoyable day as speakers shared stories on
learning about and collecting Asian art. The
opportunity to handle pieces and to question
speakers enhanced the experience.
Michael Abbot AO QC opened with a lively
account of his varied collections. He initially
focussed on Asian trade ceramics but later
switched to textiles because they were more
connected to peoples lives and less expensive
to collect at the time. Perhaps he was lucky
when he began collecting in the 1960s as he was
able to go to the source to find items, something
he feels is paramount. He emphasised that
donating ones collections to art institutions is
just as rewarding as collecting.

Todd Sunderman described his experience

as beginner collector, who by research and
perseverance, managed to acquire pieces for
his home and later became an expert dealer
in the niche market of antique west Tibetan
furniture. Todd outlined how to get started
and the steps necessary to build a collection.
Donna Hinton, Head of Objects Conservation
at AGNSW, provided some useful solutions
to the care and conservation of objects. In
particular, she discussed the value of careful
documentation of ones collection and the
balance needed between protection and display.
Raimy Che-Ross Malay silver collection began
with his family heirlooms. Malay silver is an area
perhaps little known to many in the audience
and we learnt of Raimys research into the
cultural background of this once royal preserve.
Old British black and white film clips illuminated
Malay silvers function in coronation ritual.
Paul Sumner, David Hulme and Brigitte
Benziger spoke on the practicalities of buying
art wisely as well as the state of the auction
and retail market for Asian artworks in
Australia. Paul perhaps related the funniest
story of the day as he recounted breaking his
honeymoon in Italy to pursue some special

MARGARET WHITE DISPLAYING A PAINTED PANEL FROM ONE

ANN GUILD AND RAIMY CHE-ROSS WITH A MALAY SILVER BOWL

OF TODD SUNDERMANS WEST TIBETAN CABINETS

FROM RAIMYS COLLECTION

In our coverage of Christina Sumners OAM award (March 2013 p29) we wrongly
attributed to her the curatorship of the exhibition Faith, fashion, fusion: Muslin women
in Australia. This was curated by Glynis Jones and Melanie Pitkin.

LAUNCH OF THE TAASA VICTORIA CERAMICS STUDY GROUP

Tuesday 18 June, 68 pm, Mossgreen Gallery, 310 Toorak Rd, South Yarra
Paul Sumner (Managing Director, Mossgreen Auctions) has kindly invited TAASA to a
private viewing of ceramics from the collection of the late Vincent Massa which will be
auctioned at Mossgreen. Dr John Yu AM, noted Asian ceramics collector, has agreed to
launch the Study Group that evening with a discussion of the works on view.
Refreshments provided. $20 at the door. RSVP: margot.yeomans@bigpond.com
or susan.scollay@gmail.com
TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 2

Members are invited to a viewing of a private

collection which covers an eclectic mix of
artefacts, furnishings and ritual objects mainly
from India. There will be a morning and
afternoon viewing session, as this inner city
venue can only accommodate a small number
of people. Venue details will be provided to
attendees and early booking is advisable.
TAASA members only.
Cost: $20.00 with refreshments
Contact: Gill Green at
gillians@ozemail.com.au. or 02 8964 6430
100 Years of Hindi cinema Saturday 17 August
This full day event will be held at the Sydney
Mechanics School of Arts. In the morning,
Indian cinema expert Adrienne McKibbins
will provide an overview and history of Hindi
cinema, using film clips to take us through
the twists and turns of the Bollywood genre.
Following an Indian takeaway lunch, we will
view a feature film with intermission.
Further details to be advised but put
this date in your diary.
TAASA Texile Study Group
All meetings held at the Curatorial Caf,
Powerhouse Museum, Sydney 6-8pm.
12 June A Gecko on my Shoulder: Australian
Textile artist Jessica Watson will give a
presentation of her work resulting from a year
long Artist Residency at Rimbun Dahan in
Malaysia.
10 July Central Asian Textiles: Margaret
White will examine textile designs, techniques
and their transmission through Central Asia,
focusing on examples from Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan.
14 August - Furoshiki & Ikebana:
Yukie Sato & Sandy Marker will explore
the relationship between these traditional
Japanese Arts.
Refreshments provided. $10 members; $15
non members. Contact: Marianne Hulsbosch
marianne@hulsbosch.com.au or 0413741552.
TAASA Ceramics Study Group, Sydney
Meetings held at COFA, Oxford St Paddington
6-8pm, High Tech Seminar room, F205.
Tuesday 11 June - Buncheong Ware and the
work of contemporary Australian- Korean
ceramic artist, Won-Seok Kim
In this next CSG event, Min-Jung Kim from the
Powerhouse Museum, Sydney will give a brief
overview of Buncheong ware and introduce
noted Korean-Australian ceramicist, Won-Seok
Kim. Won-Seok has generously agreed to bring
samples of his work which he will discuss.
People are invited to bring relevant Korean
pieces they may have in their collections,
including related Japanese mishima ware.
Refreshments provided. $15 members;
$20 non members. RSVP: Margaret White
at Margaret.artmoves@gmail.com.
Tuesday 6 August 6-8pm - event topic
to be advised.
29

Asian pieces, one of which resulted in a new

auction record in Australia in 2011.
TAASA TEXTILE STUDY GROUP EVENTS
Margaret White
Textiles of East Timor: A visual survey,
13 March 2013
Dr Chris Reid began by providing a snapshot
of the tumultuous external influences on the
region. The culture of the Tetun people of

Timor was shaped by Malay culture to the

west and the Papuans from the east. They
use the back-strap loom to weave their ikat
technique textiles. He also pointed to the
generic European flower pattern, derived
from the Dutch and Portuguese, depicted on
local textiles - sarong and tais (woven cloths).
Dr Reid guided us in detail through regional
and design styles and techniques, identifying
typical motifs of clan and ethnic identifiers
such as the twin- tailed, eared crocodiles
symbolising the Supreme Being.

the early zardozi silver or gold metal thread

couching technique, and mid 20th century
folk motifs. Combining tradition with a
contemporary twist has led to innovations
such as a simplified embroidery scroll frame or
karchob, new designs and colour combinations
and the miniaturization of embroidery stitches
for intricate sari bands or fashion items. One
stunning example was a piece of zardozi work
encrusted with rubies, emeralds and Basra
(Iran) pearls stitched on hot pink silk.

Revival and Innovation - the tradition and

evolution of Aari embroidery, 10 April 2013

CHRIS REID DISCUSSING TEXTILES WITH ROZ CHENEY.

PHOTO: ROSALIE PAINO

Guest speaker Asif Shaikh is a Master

embroiderer and fashion designer who has
taken inspiration from the chain stitch or Aari
(from ari, an embroidery tool) carpets of the
Kutch Royal Court of the mid 18th century;
the Persian kamdani metal work brought to
India with the Mughals in the 16th century;

A MODERN TWIST ON TRADITION: SAMPLES OF ASIF SHAIKHS

FABRICS. PHOTO: SANDY WATSON

TAA S A P RO F IL E S
SUSAN SCOLLAY
A Melbourne based
TAASA
Committee
Member,
Susan
is
an art historian and
curator with extensive
international experience,
having studied and lived
in the UK, Australia,
Europe, the Middle East and the USA. She
is widely travelled in the Islamic world and
since 1984 has done most of her research
work in Turkey. In 2012 she completed her
Ph.D. at La Trobe University, Melbourne on
the cultural history of the lost 15th century
Ottoman palace at Edirne - viewed from the
perspectives of its ceremonies and spaces, the
art objects and textiles used within the palace
walls, its extensive gardens, and the poets,
poetry and Persianate culture that inspired it.
Susan was specialist guest co-curator of the
manuscript exhibition, Love and Devotion:
From Persia and Beyond at the State
Library of Victoria, Melbourne from March
to July 2012 and again at the Bodleian
Library, University of Oxford, November
2012 to April 2013. She edited the exhibition
publication, now in its second printing, and
a special edition of the La Trobe Journal of
the SLV which published papers from the
international conference that accompanied
the exhibition. Susan also guest edited

30

the March 2012 issue of the TAASA

Review on Persian Art of Poetry. She is
a contributing editor to the prestigious
London based journal, HALI: carpet,
textile and Islamic art.
Most recently she contributed an essay,
Remembering Josephine Powell: Kismet,
Hasret and Horses to the catalogue
published by Ko University in Istanbul
that accompanied an exhibition of
photographs of rural Anatolia by the
late ethnographer and textile specialist,
Josephine Powell. Susan is a Fellow of
the SLV, a member of the International
Association of Historians of Islamic Art
and in January 2013 was elected as a Fellow
of the Royal Asiatic Society.
TODD SUNDERMAN
Todd is TAASAs new
Treasurer. He has a
great passion for Asian
art and antiques. I
remember
strolling
through an antique
shop in London in 2001
and stumbling across
a magnificent Thai Buddha statue. It was
the sole Asian piece from the very old and
very large collection of a recently deceased
English Lord. It was love at first sight and
from that moment on I was hooked.

Born in Malaysia to expatriate parents,

perhaps his love of Asian art has always
been in his blood. It is his extensive travel
though, that he credits with building his
passion and knowledge. My wife and
I were addicted to travel until the kids
came along and slowed things down a bit.
We have had the privilege of being able to
travel extensively throughout large parts
of the world, including every country in
Asia. The more we saw the more we fell
in love with Asia, and started collecting
everywhere we went.
For us, the art becomes a part of the whole
experience. To appreciate the art fully, we
also like to experience the people, culture,
food, history and passion of the country that
it comes from. Every time I walk past a piece
in our home it brings back great memories.
Todds greatest passion though is for antique
Tibetan furniture. After starting as a private
collector, he was also a dealer while living in
Singapore, holding exhibitions in Australia
and the United States. Todd has lived
variously in Australia, London, Singapore
and the United States. He has worked as a
corporate lawyer, business consultant and
executive. He is currently engaged in his
toughest role stay at home dad.

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

W H AT S O N I N A U S TRALIA : J U N E 2 0 1 3 A U G U S T 2 0 1 3
A SELECTIVE ROUNDUP OF EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS
Compiled by Tina Burge
ACT
Earth and Fire: Japanese aesthetics and
contemporary ceramics lecture series
National Gallery of Australia
Thursday lectures, 18 July 8 August
from 6.00 7.00pm

18 July: The avant-garde of earth,

fire and water
Dr Wendy Ella Wright, research scholar,
Japan Centre, ANU: how potter, Yoshikawa
Masamichi and others have evolved concepts
takenfrom Japanese archaeological sites into
todays avant-garde movement.
25 July: Japanese potters and their
influence in Australia
Robert Bell, Senior Curator, Decorative
Arts: on Japanese potters in Australia
andAustralian potters who have worked
in a Japanese tradition or aesthetic.
1 August: The wabi influence
on Japanese ceramics
Ian Jones, potter and PhD candidate, School
of Art, ANU: impact of wabi on tea ceremony
ceramics, in particular the wood-fired works
from Bizen and Shigaraki, and the revival of
this aesthetic in the 1930s.

tomb or from burials of the same period in the

same province.
24 August symposium: will tease out the
implications of the sarcophagus find which
demands a fresh interpretation of the cultural
interaction that occurred between China and
the West due to travel and trade along the
Silk Road. Speakers include:

NSW

The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

22 August - 10 November 2013

In 1999 an extraordinary white marble

sarcophagus, unlike any previous discovery,
was excavated in Taiyuan, capital of Chinas
Shanxi province. It belonged to Yu Hong
and his wife, who had been interred in
592 and 598 respectively. Its carved and
painted scenes of hunting, feasting, musical
performance and domestic life owe more
to Persian and Buddhist iconography than
Chinese motifs. The sarcophagus will be on
display with more than 20 objects from the

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

and Indigenous Australia

Art Gallery South Australia, Adelaide
11 May - December 2013

Professor Zhang Qingjie, the archaeologist

who excavated Yu Hongs tomb.
Edmund Capon, former director of the
AGNSW.
Professor Qi Dongfang from the School
of Archaeology and Museology, Peking
University.
Professor David Goodman, currently
Academic Director, University of Sydney
China Studies Centre.
Dr Cao Yin, Curator of Chinese Art
at the AGNSW.
For more information go to:
www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

For more information go to:

www.artgallery.sa.gov.au
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
ORIENTing: With or Without You
Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery,
The University of Western Australia, Perth
4 May - 13 July 2013

SARCOPHAGUS SEAT, SUI DYNASTY (581-619), WHITE MARBLE.

FROM YU HONG TOMB 592 CE. SHANXI PROVINCIAL MUSEUM

The Shaping of Eryldene

Centenary of an iconic house and garden
Eryldene Trust & Historic Houses

A Silk Road saga: Yu Hongs sarcophagus

Noble Shadows: Ancestral art of Indonesia

Explores the close parallels between the

spiritual traditions of Indonesia and
Indigenous Australia. From pre-historic
times, the Indigenous arts of both countries
have been a medium for expressing
spirituality and reverence for ancestors.
The display features a variety of objects in
the medium of woodcarving, ceramics, bark
painting and textiles. Among the highlights
is a collection of spectacular Borneo spirit
masks only recently acquired by the AGSA
and several 18th century Sumatran ship
cloths whose great fragility has precluded
inclusion in previous exhibitions.

8 August: Japanese aesthetics

and Australian influences
Japanese potter Hiroe Swen: on her practice,
Japanese aesthetics and Australian influences
on her work.
Additional lecture 9 July 12.45pm: Fired
with Passion; but with a mystified purpose.
Dr Wendy Ella Wright: on ancient Jomon
pottery and indigenous Japanese aesthetics in
contemporary Japanese art and design.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Trust Members Joint Event.

Sunday 28th July, The Mint, Macquarie Street,

Sydney, 10am 4pm. Speakers including Jackie
Menzies, Colleen Morris, James Broadbent,
Zeny Edwards, Anne Warr and descendants of
the two progenitors of Eryldene, the building
commissioned in 1913 by EG Waterhouse from
architect William Hardy Wilson, will delve into
the tastes and artistic influences that shaped
the house and its gardens, with a special focus
on the Chinese connection and the growing
appreciation of Chinese art, decoration and
design in 20th century Australia.

The Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery at the

University of Western Australia is holding
two exhibitions based around the early
work of the artist Ian Fairweather. The
first, ORIENTing: Ian Fairweather in Western
Australian Collections, features his early
paintings from the 1930s and 1940s and
focuses on the influence of Asian art and
culture on his practice.
ORIENTing: With or Without You, curated by
Aaron Seeto and Toby Chapman, responds to
many of the themes such as place, identity and
landscape that preoccupied Fairweather. The
exhibition includes works by contemporary
artists Newell Harry, Tom Nicholson,
Phaptawan Suwannakudt, Roy Wiggan, Tintin
Wulia and John Young. Some of the artists
respond directly to Fairweathers paintings,
while others reflect on the broader themes of
cross-cultural engagement and interaction.
For more information go to:
www.lwgallery.uwa.edu.au

Bookings: www.hht.net.au or 8239 2266

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