BULLETIN
OF THE METROPOLITAN
coloredpiecesof cloth that were drapedon
the body. The sari, for instance,a strip of
cloth about twelve feet long, was the most
importantitem in an Indianwoman'swardrobe. It was wrapped about the loins to
form a skirt, and one end was drapedover
the head.The Indonesianwomen,however,
worethe sarongwhich, shapedlike the sari
but slightly shorter,became a skirt when
wrappedabout the waist. This was often
worn in conjunctionwith the slendang,a
AN EXHIBITION OF INDIAN
AND INDONESIAN TEXTILES
On April 12 a special exhibition of Indian
and Indonesian' textiles of the seventeenth,
eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries opens
in Gallery H I5 and will continue through
the summer months, closing on September
I5. The exhibition affords the Museum an
opportunity to exhibit a selected group
from its collection of these textiles, which
FIG. I.
MUSEUM OF ART
DETAIL OF A BATIK, JAVANESE, EARLY XIX CENTURY
has been greatly increased during the past
few years through gifts and purchases.2
Textile manufacture is one of the most
ancient of Eastern crafts, but no specimens
from India earlier than the seventeenth
century have come down to us, and not
many from before the year 1700. The
majority of the pieces in this exhibition
date from the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries.
The textiles were made to be used as
apparel or as household furnishings. The
garments were rectangular and brightly
1The islandsof the East Indies.
2Otherexamplesmay be foundin the galleries
of Near Easternart.
thinner strip of cloth that was draped
around the breast. Tailored garments were
also worn in India. A painted court robe3in
this exhibition, similar in style to costumes
found in seventeenth-century Indian miniature paintings, is a magnificent example.
The articles of household furnishings include palampores, large painted and printed
hangings, many of which in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries were shipped by
the English and Dutch East India Companies to Europe, where they were popular.
The textiles in this exhibition may be
divided according to the type of their
decoration into two classes: the dyed and
3Acc. no. 29.135.
92
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FIG. 2.
PAINTED HANGING, PALAMPORE, INDIAN
LATE XVII CENTURY
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OF THE METROPOLITAN
MUSEUM
OF ART
tion, the yellow was painted directly, and
the green was obtained by painting yellow
over blue. A magnificent palampore (fig. 2)
of the late seventeenth century, recently
purchased by the Museum, is another example of work done in this manner. The
vigor and splendid boldness of the designthe Tree of Life-and its precise execution
make this hanging a welcome and important addition to the collection of Indian
art. Occasionally textiles were decorated by
the block-printing process, in some cases
entirely by this method, but more often in
combination with the other processes. This
use of blocks is traditional and may have
originated in India.
The second class of Indian dyeing processes, the tie-dyeing or patola technique,
in which the pattern is completed before
work on the loom is begun. is a most curious
and difficult method, and probably of
high antiquity. As both the warp and the
weft threads were completely dyed before
the fabric was woven, the most exacting
calculations were necessary for the production of a coherent pattern. The portions of
the thread which were not to receive a color were securely wrapped by fibers to resist the dye into which the thread was
dipped. A fragment of a fine patola silk's
has within diamond-shaped compartments
elephants, birds, and flowering plants which
appear in vivid red, blue, green, yellow, and
white. Another phase of this technique is
the "tied and dyed" process in which the
design was created by tying up portions of
FIG. 3. DETAIL, BROCADED VELVET
the woven cloth with threads to resist the
CENTURY
XVII
INDIAN,
dye.
The fabrics from Indonesia may also be
of the world has the dyeing of cloth been
an
extent.
according to technique into
separated
to
such
developed
A painted cotton cushion cover decorated painted and tie-dyed fabrics. Batiks, the
with figures in Persian and Indian cos- typical Javanese textiles, were made by
tumes,4 from a series of three remarkable painting with a wax resist that part of a
pieces owned by the Museum, is definitely design not to receive a color, and then
documented as one of the few Indian tex- dipping the cloth into the dye. The success
tiles of the first half of the seventeenth of the process depended largely upon the
century. The red colors were applied by the ability of the worker applying the wax.
The Museum's collection of batiks has
use of mordants, chemical solutions capable
of fixing otherwise fugitive dyes to the recently been enriched by the purchase of
cloth, the blue was applied by the wax- a group of early nineteenth-century sarongs
resist process, or possibly by direct applica- from Java, which in their delicate design
4JosephBreck,MetropolitanMuseumStudies, and fine coloring are representative of this
5Acc. no. 21.143.2.
vol. I (1928-1929), pp. 3-6.
the woven. Among the dyed fabrics, two
groups may be noted: the painted and
printed fabrics, called "pintadoes,"
"chintz," or "calicoes," and the tie-dyed
fabrics. These traditional processes of dyeing required of the craftsman great skill and
patience, and could be accomplished only
in a country where a man's time was a
commodity of low value. In no other part
94
BULLETIN
OF THE METROPOLITAN
widely practised art.6 Their decoration
ranges from naturalistic human and animal
figures (fig. i) and shadow figures of the
Javanese theater, wayang, to highly conventionalized designs. While many motives
are reminiscent of Indian decoration, the
art of Java cannot be called an Indian
colonial art. Despite the strong economic
and social ties that have bound Indonesia
to India, there has developed in the islands
an artistic tradition native to the taste of
the Malay-Polynesian inhabitants.7 Occasionally the influence of Chinese art may be
recognized. Cotton was the material generally used, but batiks have been made in
silk. Blue, brown, and red are the colors
most frequently found.
Corresponding to the patola silks, which
were apparently made throughout Indonesia as well as India, are the nineteenthcentury Indonesian ikats, three examples of
which have recently been purchased by the
Museum. They come from the island of
Sumba, east of Java. In these gorgeously
colored textiles the weft alone was tie-dyed.
Polynesian in feeling, the design is based
on primitive human and animal figures.
Because of the mechanical limitations
of the loom, the woven fabrics from India
have somewhat more conventional designs
than the dyed fabrics. Although the influence of Persian silks is apparent in some
pieces, notably in a seventeenth-century
brocaded velvet decorated with floral sprays
(fig. 3) and in an eighteenth-century double
cloth with similar decoration, others are
worked in designs more typically Indian.
These frequently made lavish use of metal
threads. Late eighteenth-century brocaded
cloths usually have floral decoration such
as the flowering palmette, but human and
animal figures are not uncommon. In the
manufacture of saris, the brocading was
generally used only in the borders; the
centers consist of a cotton of very light
texture.
Kashmir shawls from northern India
were woven in a fine wool native to the regions, and were generally decorated with
6Joseph M. Upton,
BULLETIN,
vol. XXV
(1930), pp. 244-245.
7A. K. Coomaraswamy,
Historyof Indianand
IndonesianArt, pp. 156-157.
95
MUSEUM OF ART
borders of palmettes. They are closely related to embroidered cashmere shawls in design, material, and color. A white ground
and a bluish tone in the decoration are typical of these North Indian textiles. Kashmir
shawls of a more widely known type were
made by weaving upon the loom small sections which were then stitched together by
hand into the required design. Dark red,
blue, and yellow colors characterize these
shawls, all of which were made in the nineteenth century. Very popular in Europe,
they were imitated both in Paisley, Scotland, and in France.
The woven fabrics from Indonesia likewise are notable for the lavish use of metal
threads. The examples exhibited are mostly
parts of costumes and appear to have come
from Sumatra.
JOHN GOLDSMITHPHILLIPS.
A MARBLE HEAD
The Museum has acquired an important
piece of classical sculpturel-a marble head
of a woman (figs. I-4; height, 15 8 in. [38.4
cm.]), once part of a statue.2 It is a Roman
copy of a Greek work of about 460-450 B.C.,
and a well-known piece, for it belonged to
the Lansdowne Collection many years and
has been frequently published.3 According
to the records it was found by Gavin Hamilton between 1769 and 1773 in the neighborhood of Rome.
Speaking generally, the large majority of
Greek statues preserved in Roman copies
belong to the developed period of Greek
art, that is, from about 450 B.C. onward.
The sculpture of the archaic epoch was seldom if ever copied directly, and of the
transitional period only comparatively few
1It is shownthis monthin the Roomof Recent
Accessions.
2It was trimmedto be let into a modernbust,
which has now been removed.Originallyit was
probablyworkedto fit into the largehollowof a
statue. The only restorationsare the end of the
nose, a piece of the hair on the right side, and
partsof the ears. The marbleis Pentelic.
3Burlington Fine Arts Club, Exhibition of
Ancient Greek Art, 1904, pp. 12-13, no. I, pi. XI;
Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain,
p. 449, no. 53; Specimensof AntiqueSculpture,
I, pl. 7; sale catalogueof the LansdowneCollection, March5, 1930,p. 37, no. 54.