Sunggingans

[A. G. Maisey]

That's very nice information Gustav, and it demonstrates the extent to which other cultures and societies have contributed to Javanese/Indonesian culture/society.

We now tend to think of much of this contribution as being original to the place where we find it, even the people who are native to the area think so, but when evidence such as you have presented surfaces we need to rethink the entire thing.

Thank you.

[A. G. Maisey]

I have been very pressed for time over the last few days, thus I limited my response to Gustav's informative post to just a couple of lines, but the information he has shared with us certainly generates as many questions as it does answers.

I'm going to wander a little bit before I raise any questions, so please bear with me, or if you really don't like reading text, scroll down to START HERE.

The first sunggingan keris that I ever handled was one that I bought in the early 1970's in Solo. It is an old sunggingan, alas-alasan motif, Surakarta ladrangan. I was a bit puzzled by it because I did not at that time understand sunggingans, so I asked the seller for information, and then I followed that info up with several other people.

The consensus of opinion from these Solo people was that sunggingan ornamentation had its origin with the Dutch, yes, the motifs were certainly Javanese and could be found in other Javanese works, such as, for instance, batik, but the idea of the painted ornamentation was supposedly Dutch.

In the years that followed my initial purchase I saw and purchased many other sunggingan keris, and there is a display of sunggingans in the Radya Pustaka Museum. Not only keris are given sunggingan dress, but other tosan aji also, wedung, tombak, pedang. A couple of examples with this post. Style in sunggingan work is almost limitless, it is usually one or another interpretation of a traditional Javanese motif, but examples of a wide range of styles can be found.

Sunggingan work is also applied to furniture and to other household items, it can be found on blawong and ploncon.

I have also seen sunggingan work on furniture in museums, not much of it where I live, but in Europe there is a lot of old furniture that has sunggingan ornamentation.

Up until about 25 years ago if I had been asked for an opinion on the origin of sunggingan ornamentation I would have repeated what I had been told by my Solonese informants, that it was inspired by Dutch contact. Possibly this is correct as far as it goes, the Dutch had a lot of influence on many things Javanese. However, as I learnt more about the ancient past of Jawa, my opinions on this matter of sunggingan origin changed.

Sunggingan work can be found in places in Indonesia where the Dutch did not have a particularly heavy influence, for instance, Bali, and Balinese sunggingan work is very, very different to most Javanese sunggingan work, although some of it seems to have been influenced by Cirebon motifs, and does display distinct Chinese characteristics.

Is this a direct Chinese influence? It may well be, as there are numerous other things that we can identify in Balinese culture that seem to owe something to Chinese influence, or is this Chinese style from North Coast Jawa? I cannot answer this question, but it might be a very good field for somebody to investigate.

But to return to Jawa. Surakarta seems to have had a fondness for sunggingan ornamentation, and the motifs used cover virtually the entire field of motifs that can be found in other Javanese art and craft, but sunggingan work was used in other places as well. I have seen, but do not own, a number of old examples of North Coast sunggingan work, some of this work has been very fine, and does not echo the style of the Central Javanese motifs, but although repetitive, this North Coast style is less ordered that the Central Javanese style, and very often displays a distinct Chinese influence.

Another thing that I have seen in Javanese sunggingan work is a propensity for including animals that are not indigenous to Jawa, included in the relevant motifs. This is in fact very common. I once saw a pre-WWII wrongko that had kangaroos included, and I have seen kangaroos in several current era works. Rabbits also make frequent appearances. In the recent past, say the last 100 years or so, it seems that the philosophy of the sungging artists is art, rather than reality, and this may well have always been true.

START HERE:-
1) Rasdan, the keris that you show in post #15 is European work, I've forgotten the details, but I'm certain that Gustav will know.

2) Gustav, my questions following are not intended to throw even the smallest doubt upon the information that you have provided, but only to better understand the information you have provided:-

A) bearing in mind that the Portuguese did not have much success in establishing a presence on Jawa, do you believe it is reasonable to assume that this keris (post #10) was taken by the Portuguese to Cochin and decorated there?

B) what is the source for identification of the gold on this scabbard as "lacquer" ?

C) I have absolutely no knowledge of the characteristics of Indo/Portuguese style in painted ornamentation, so I have put in some time in trying to find examples of this Indo/Portuguese style, the better to understand the relationship to the style of ornamentation on this scabbard.
This is of interest to me, because elements of what I can see in the ornamentation on this scabbard I have also seen in Javanese sunggingan work.
Perhaps the Javanese work owes its origin to Portuguese work, but since there was no lasting contact with the Portuguese on Jawa, it causes me to wonder just where this influence on Javanese work may have come from.
Certainly the inclusion of hares or rabbits in the motif on the keris scabbard can hardly be indigenous Javanese, but the overall execution of the keris scabbard motif does bear a similarity to some much later Javanese execution.
Is there an online image of the table top that you mention? (Kunstkammer of Kunsthistorisches Museum in Wienna, Inv Nr. 4958). I have searched for one, but have had no success. If you can provide a hardcopy reference that would also be of use.

[Gustav]

Here is a link to a description of the second keris Rasdan posted, also a good chance to study an authentic end of 17th/beginning of 18th cent. Singa Barong blade from a somewhat better picture:

http://masterpieces.asemus.museum/ma...objectId=10902

Alan, I will post two pictures of this tabletop later this evening. I didn't found any on internet. The description as "lacquer painting" comes from "Exotica. Portugals Entdeckungen im Spiegel fürstlicher Kunst- und Wunderkammern der Renaissance, Wien 2000", ISBN 3-85497-009-9. It is a highly recomendable book, only after reading it I have understood, how fast the portuguese builded up a net of local workshops in countries they just have reached, to produce objects of interest for the very first, then mostly royal, collectors of curiosities back in Europe. From beginning on there is a very interesting mixture of styles (chinese artists from Macao tranplanted to Cochin to work in an indo/persian/portuguese style). Such mixture in arts is actually one of the most interesting sides of colonialism (like the upright piano in Burmese folk music from 1880-ties or violin and guitar in vietnamese folk music from the end of 19th cent.).

Regarding Balinese Sunggingans, I also thought, this could be a direct chinese influence/to me the style of painting very often looks chinese. Some time ago I was searching for a motif of two birds opposite one another. Here are two examples from Malay Peninsula and Bali, with birds and foliage, of course it could also be a pure coincidence. Till today I don't know the meaning of this motif (if there is any), yet I suppose, it could perhaps come from Middle-Asia and has been brought to SEAsia via chinese population.

[David]

If you look carefully Gustav you will see that my Bali example also has two birds facing one another, though my birds are not in flight.
Your Malay example i believe (as you are probably aware) is not painted, but rather inlaid wire (gold?).

[Gustav]

David, yes, indeed, there are birds on your Sunggingan. Thank you for the hint.

Attached are somewhat better pictures of the perhaps oldest provenanced Sunggingan, the other Vienna Keris, possibly first mentioned in 1607. It is in style very similar to the Sunggingan in Sendai (1622) and the Sunggingan from Skokloster in Sweden. The spontaneity of the painting is quite different from later Sunggingans. The thema of all these early Sunggingan is Alas-Alasan.

There is an interesting detail, an insect at the very top of the sheath, a dragonfly (?). An insect, mostly butterfly at this place is depicted also on some of the older modern Solo style Alas-Alasan Sunggingans (like the one on cover of Solyoms book), and, I see now, possibly also on David's Sunggingan.

The one possible explanation could be the Alas-Alasan as the cosmic model of the world and thus the insects (and birds) belonging to the heaven, the highest sphere.

"The vertical image is concerned with the universe. Fundamental is the inclusion of a protective elemant to faciliate contacts with the deities and the ancestors. Most basical is the bipartite upper world-lower world. The patterns consist of birds and flowering creepers - sky and earth. In FIGURE 11, the protective element is represented by the Chinese mythic dog-lion, ky'lin. (...) More complex is the abstracted tripartite world of water flowing down the mountains, forested land, and wings floating above in the sky (...)"

from "Five Centuries of Indonesian Textiles", the Mary Hunt Kahlenberg Collection, Prestel 2010.

Perhaps like ky'lin, the mythical kreature on this Sunggingan (similar to the three carriages with elephant head, eagle wings and lions body in Cirebon, dating back to the 16th cent. (1549)) has a protective function.

[Gustav]

Here pictures of the tabletop, attributed to Cochin, before 1595, compared to Sunggingan of Deutschorden's keris from Vienna. Singular for a Sunggingan and perhaps a possible evidence for a non-javanese taste is the horizontal orientation of the tableau.

[A. G. Maisey]

Thank you very much for the additional information Gustav. All of this is in an area where I have very slight knowledge. I find particularly interesting the use of Chinese artists by the Portuguese, as to my eye the green sunggingan wrongko to a greater degree, and the tabletop to a lesser degree both display a Chinese hand.

I am not saying that I am any sort of authority on Chinese art, but I have been surrounded by Chinese art and references for most of my life, and I have a very close association with somebody who paints in Chinese style. It is impossible for me to escape the saturation effect of Chinese art.

Insofar as Javanese symbolism is concerned , the quote that
"the vertical image is concerned with the universe" can be accepted in some representations, but it would be quite incorrect to accept this as an overarching interpretation that can be universally accepted.

The dragonfly in Javanese symbolism can be interpreted in a number of ways, rather like a word that can have a number of meanings depending on the context in which it is used. It is a symbol of change, it connects air and water, it can be read as a symbol related to a warrior, but it can also be a substitution for a butterfly.

The butterfly in Hindu symbolism is a symbol of Brahma, Brahma is the creator so the butterfly can be read as creation, or in Hindu thought, as rebirth, but there is another interpretation in Hindu thought, and that is as married harmony, in fact in one of the Hindu wedding ceremonies ( I forget which one) the ceremony begins with the word "prajapati". Prajapati is equivalent to (but not the same as) Brahma, but it can also be understood as "butterfly", or as "king".

Butterflies and dragonflies cannot be understood as birds or bird substitutes, birds can be understood in a number of ways, depending on the bird. In Javanese symbolism in general, as a bridge between the upper realm and the earth, so as a line of communication with the dead, this can particularly apply with the cockatoo, but with the dove, as a symbol of love or lust --- I've always found this a bit humorous, as amongst birds, the dove is exceptionally vicious with its own kind, it is one of the few birds that will fight its own kind to the death, mostly birds only fight to achieve domination, but not the dove:- doves fight to kill.

Anyway, butterflies and dragon flies occupying the same iconographic niche as birds? No. Not in Jawa anyway.

The association of dragonflies with water is interesting when we consider the use of a dragonfly motif in association with a keris, because one of the symbolic associations of the keris is with water. The part of the keris that is most closely tied to water symbolism is the ganja, which is probably symbolically associated with Dewi Gangga, and when we enter this realm of symbolic associations we're really getting into very deep water --- so to speak. Note that the dragonfly appears at the top of an alas-alasan motif, in line with the position of the ganja when the keris is in the warangka. Note also that the butterfly can be understood as a dragonfly substitute --- and vice versa.

Lots of thought provoking stuff here. Don't have a nervous breakdown thinking about it.

The symbolism of the alas-alasan motif is that it represents the world.

In Hindu thought the whole world is a forest --- actually three different kinds of forest ---, to maintain our world we must maintain the forests, everything in our physical world is an aspect of the singularity of the Supreme Being, we respect the world and all in it, we respect the Supreme Being. The Ultimate Reality is everywhere, in everything, but in the forest representation we symbolise only this world that we live in, not the cosmos.

I've used the Hindu example here, but Hindu symbolism and thought patterns are vital in understanding Javanese thought patterns. They may not be the same, but they do seem to permeate much of Javanese culture and society.

I cannot interpret accurately the two birds symbol that we see so frequently. I have had many interpretations of this symbol given to me, and I have read many more, but there seems to be so much variation in what can be understood from this symbol that I hesitate to try to interpret it at all.