Wayang painting

RSWORD · 2nd October 2015, 01:49 PM

Looking to learn a bit more about these Wayang paintings. Vibrant colors on cloth. They all seem to show good age but how much exactly? Two have inscriptions. What kind of script is it? What was the purpose of these paintings? Were they used in conjunction with the puppet shows? What do these scenes represent? Sorry for all the questions but these are interesting items and would love to learn as much as I can about them.

Rick · 2nd October 2015, 04:37 PM

Interesting that their eyes are all looking to the sky or heaven .

A. G. Maisey · 3rd October 2015, 01:40 AM

What is the size of the painting? How long, how wide?

It might be a wayang beber scroll. Wayang beber is just about dead these days, but it actually pre-dates wayang kulit. The dalang tells the story while the scroll is unrolled. I seem to recall that the stories are from East Javanese legends.

A few years ago there were still painters in Solo who could produce wayang beber scrolls, and they would do short versions for use as wall decorations. I heard about a dalang from south of Solo --- maybe Pacitan --- who still gave performances

RSWORD · 4th October 2015, 04:54 AM

They vary in size but on average they are 50' long and 31" wide. In researching these I ran across the possibility of wayang beber but I couldn't find much information about them particularly many examples. They don't seem too common.

A. G. Maisey · 4th October 2015, 09:54 AM

No, not common, as I said, wayang beber is all but dead.

If your paintings are fifty feet long, I'd say almost certainly wayang beber scrolls, unwound as the dalang tells the story.

RSWORD · 4th October 2015, 01:38 PM

That was a typo on my part. 50" long. Do you know what type of script is used on the 2 examples that are signed?

A. G. Maisey · 4th October 2015, 09:38 PM

50 inches" ?

In that case I'd say it is fairly current work done as a wall decoration. Pity.

Script is hanacaraka ("a" is pronounced as a back of throat "a", sounds like "o"), Javanese script, or "aksara Jawa". I cannot read this. I can figure it out by using references and a bit of guess work. Quite difficult these days to find somebody who can read it fluently.

Couple of online references:-

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/javanese.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javanese_script

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=h...odVfMGdQ&dpr=1

http://www.gimonca.com/indonesia/huruf_jawa.html

Bear in mind that as with any script the letters are often given variant forms by individual writers, so you need to have some background and do a bit of guessing.

RSWORD · 6th October 2015, 01:05 PM

Thank you for the references and identification of the script. I had suspected the paintings were fairly recent. Strictly judging from the wear patterns from the cloth being folded along with the amount of thinning to the material and I would guess early to mid 20th century. This seems to line up with both the decline in use of the script as well as the art form itself.

2nd October 2015, 01:49 PM	#1
RSWORD Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Greensboro, NC Posts: 1,084	Wayang painting Looking to learn a bit more about these Wayang paintings. Vibrant colors on cloth. They all seem to show good age but how much exactly? Two have inscriptions. What kind of script is it? What was the purpose of these paintings? Were they used in conjunction with the puppet shows? What do these scenes represent? Sorry for all the questions but these are interesting items and would love to learn as much as I can about them. Attached Images

2nd October 2015, 04:37 PM	#2
Rick Vikingsword Staff Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 6,293	Interesting that their eyes are all looking to the sky or heaven .

3rd October 2015, 01:40 AM	#3
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,897	What is the size of the painting? How long, how wide? It might be a wayang beber scroll. Wayang beber is just about dead these days, but it actually pre-dates wayang kulit. The dalang tells the story while the scroll is unrolled. I seem to recall that the stories are from East Javanese legends. A few years ago there were still painters in Solo who could produce wayang beber scrolls, and they would do short versions for use as wall decorations. I heard about a dalang from south of Solo --- maybe Pacitan --- who still gave performances

4th October 2015, 04:54 AM	#4
RSWORD Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Greensboro, NC Posts: 1,084	They vary in size but on average they are 50' long and 31" wide. In researching these I ran across the possibility of wayang beber but I couldn't find much information about them particularly many examples. They don't seem too common.

4th October 2015, 09:54 AM	#5
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,897	No, not common, as I said, wayang beber is all but dead. If your paintings are fifty feet long, I'd say almost certainly wayang beber scrolls, unwound as the dalang tells the story.

4th October 2015, 01:38 PM	#6
RSWORD Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Greensboro, NC Posts: 1,084	That was a typo on my part. 50" long. Do you know what type of script is used on the 2 examples that are signed?

4th October 2015, 09:38 PM	#7
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,897	50 inches" ? In that case I'd say it is fairly current work done as a wall decoration. Pity. Script is hanacaraka ("a" is pronounced as a back of throat "a", sounds like "o"), Javanese script, or "aksara Jawa". I cannot read this. I can figure it out by using references and a bit of guess work. Quite difficult these days to find somebody who can read it fluently. Couple of online references:- http://www.omniglot.com/writing/javanese.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javanese_script https://www.google.com.au/search?q=h...odVfMGdQ&dpr=1 http://www.gimonca.com/indonesia/huruf_jawa.html Bear in mind that as with any script the letters are often given variant forms by individual writers, so you need to have some background and do a bit of guessing.

6th October 2015, 01:05 PM	#8
RSWORD Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Greensboro, NC Posts: 1,084	Thank you for the references and identification of the script. I had suspected the paintings were fairly recent. Strictly judging from the wear patterns from the cloth being folded along with the amount of thinning to the material and I would guess early to mid 20th century. This seems to line up with both the decline in use of the script as well as the art form itself.