The Republic of Indonesia consists of more than 17,000 islands in Southeast Asia. The VA collection features pieces from Bali, Java, Lombok, Kalimantan (Borneo) and Timor. Items include wood carvings, architectural ornaments, masks, puppets, and other spiritual and decorative objects.
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Rangda mask of the Balinese demon-queen with scary upper fangs, missing lower fangs, jagged facial elements, menacing eyes in deep red. She i one of the two most important of Bali’s masks.
Javanese terracotta head part of bas-relief frieze from Majapahit Empire. Most unearthed figures were small decapitated heads with Javanese facial features, hairstyles, large ear ornamentations of upper classes. A great small piece of history.
This rare vintage Balinese mask of Jatayu was used in Ramayana performances. He is the Hindu vehicle of Vishnu, one of the principal Hindu Gods triad. On a museum quality stand.
This very masterful and unusual Jauk mask carved by the Balinese community on Lombok has a sweet smile and moustache and eyebrows of animal hide and hair. The dancer wear gloves with very long fingernails moving his hands back and forth to generate anxiety in onlookers.
Timor masks are rare, intense, characterized by large roughly cut eyes and sometimes have no teeth. This one is not completely black from being stored in house rafters and also has no animal hide with hair attached to it. Its surface has darkened unevenly and there are white bits of white especially on the front. Threatening due to its lack of teeth, asymmetrical eyes and their lack of balance, ancestral masks are used in offering rituals designed to drive off malevolent spirits, scare enemies and perform ritual ceremonies and war celebrations.
Influenced by Islam for centuries, Javanese theater in Indonesia is stylized, didactic and full of central characters said to be cultural and historic icons of morality. Mask drama theater (Topeng Wayang) in Java is dominated by the conservative central Javanese palace courts (kraton) of Surakarta, Solo and Jogjakarta (Yogyakarta) which have long supported mask makers,…
Dayu mask of Balinese high-caste female Hindu Brahman, beautiful decorative piece on a museum quality metal stand.
In Dayak tradition, this vintage authentic hudoq mask has a white face paint around the eyes and forehead.and carved outlines with traditional upward curling moustache arabesques. Mounted on a museum quality metal stand.
Authentic vintage mask of a king (topeng dalem) carved in the Balinese community on Lombok Island. Honoring historical kings, it was also an offering to please the gods. It exhibits the king’s qualities: a refined, cultured, idealized, model leader. Mounted on museum quality stand.
Deeply set cut-out eyes and mouths are traditional for West Timor ancestor masks as are few, none or menacing teeth. They are rare and often have hair on animal hides on the upper lip, brows and head. Often looking threatening with stark features, their black color, teeth and often lack of balance scare off malevolent and evil spirits. Storing them in the rafters above the house hearth accounts for their smokey black color. Timor Ancestor masks have an earthy expressive presence and a raw spirit.
Timor’s religion has been described by Barbier as ritual exchanges between persons and social groups with their ancestors and fertility spirits. Timorese believe they can be upset by wicked forces, sickness, infertility and other forces, but particularly by the failure of the living to make suitable sacrifices to ancestral spirits. The departed protect and bring prosperity to the living as long as they are honored properly, so there is a close reciprocal link between the deceased and the secular world. Ancestors mediate between the living and the unseen world for living relatives. Their masks are used in animist veneration rituals, protective ceremonies and ritual dances or ceremonies tied to fertility, harvest, or funerary rites Besides masks, the living s are obliged to carve ancestor effigies to honor departed souls for them to occupy and rest in during their village visits. Many ceremonies usually occur in a house room known as “the womb” where a pillar supports beams rising up to the roof struts. This functions symbolically as an axis mundi (the center of the world or cosmic axis) that connects heaven and supports a simple altar above the floor to hold religious artifacts, protective fetishes and charms to ward off evil. So masks, effigies and fetish objects are protective and magic objects used throughout Indonesian islands in. Timor masks were rarely seen in the west until the mid-1970s.
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