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Readers may be interested in this talk by Dr. Lesley Pullen next week on her new book, Patterned Splendour. Zoom registration link below.
There survive numerous free-standing figurative sculptures produced in Java from the 8th to the 15th century whose dress displays detailed textile patterns. This surviving body of sculpture, carved in stone and cast in metal, varying in both size and now condition, stand in archaeological sites and museums within Indonesia, and in collections around the world. As the harsh equatorial climate of Java has precluded the survival of any textiles from this era, the speaker argues that the textiles represented on these sculptures provide us with a unique insight into the patterned splendour of the many and varied luxury textiles in circulation within Java during this Hindu Buddhist period.
Supported by close up photographs and original line drawings, the speaker sheds fresh light on the sculptures presenting these repeat patterns and, pulling on her research of the ancient maritime trade routes, proposes an Asia wide range of sources of inspiration for such intricate patterns. Reflections of textiles still to be found in Persia, India and China can be identified on these medieval Javanese sculptures, raising the question as to whether Java itself was not the original source of inspiration.
This research forms the basis of the speaker’s new book Patterned Splendour.
