TRADITIONAL PAINTING

For centuries Java was the mother country, a fact reflected even today in the subject matter of traditional Balinese painting. The traditional styles derive for the most part from the 14th and 15th centuries when the Hindu population of East Java migrated to Bali, taking their art forms with them.
     The first painters were puppet painters, a skill which evolved over time to include painting figures on cloth according to well-established iconographic rules. Known as wayang-style paintings because the figures resembled shadow-puppet characters, these highly formalized traditional paintings related scenes from Balinese mythology and from the classical Hindu Mahabharata and Ramayana epics.
     Popular, everyday scenes from daily Balinese life were never depicted. This was a world of Hindu gods, demons, and princesses dressed in the ancient attire of Hindu Javanese times. Quaint but uninspiring, their purpose was to instill moral and ethical values by relating laws of adat.
     Specialists in the traditional arts of religious drawing and painting were commissioned by the rajas to paste gold leaf on pieces of clothing; paint statues and artifacts in bright splashy colors; and decorate wooden cremation towers, palace altars, and pavilions. Noblemen from the courts loaned each other artists, in this way spreading art all over the island.

Types of Traditional Paintings
These early Hinduized Balinese produced three main types of paintings. The first, called ider-ider, were cotton scroll paintings in the shape of banners, usually two meters long and 30 cm wide, hung under the eaves of shrines during festivals.
     The second type, langse, were large rectangular pieces of painted cloth, up to 15 meters long and four meters wide, suspended from puri pavilions or used as curtains to partition off areas of a temple. Both the ider-ider and the langse were religious narrative paintings characterized by a flat, stiff, formal style-a serial representation of people, gods, and demons painted according to a very strict traditional formula and lacking in all emotion.
     The third type of traditional painting was the astrological calendar (pelelintangan), examples of which exist to this day.
     With the Dutch conquest of the island in 1908, the courts lost power and ceremonial painting went into immediate decline. After that, only the wealthy princes of fertile Gianyar Regency were able to retain their rank and thus continue to patronize the arts.
     Painting still finds its way onto statues, crossbeams, and building columns. Color is applied at its most frenzied on religious architecture and in ceremonial bale, particularly in the decoration of bedboards and shrine boxes (prabu), and on the long banners that beautify temple eaves during odalan.

Characteristics of Traditional Paintings
The painter of traditional works is governed by a strict set of rules regarding subjects, scenery, and composition. Colors are traditionally confined to red (barak), vermilion (kencu), blue (pelung), indigo (tengi), yellow (kuning), white (putih), and black (selem), and a little ochre for flesh tones. These colors at one time were made from organic soot, clay, minerals, fish-gelatin, and pig's bones, but now imported oil colors, acrylics, and black Chinese ink are used.
     Originally, the painting surface was handwoven cotton cloth imported from Nusa Penida. Today a thin, unbleached cotton fabric is coated with rice paste until an even, matte-like surface is achieved. The cloth is then polished to a sheen with a large smooth seashell. The coating dulls even bright colors, giving the work a vintage appearance; hence the modern term for these paintings, lukisan antik, or "antique paintings."
     The master first systematically and mechanically draws the preliminary outline of the picture. Assistants color it in, then the master gives the finishing touches. Shading to indicate perspective is traditionally not used. Profiles are rare and full-face representations rarer still. Most faces are drawn in three-quarter profile, with the eyes always shown.
     All available space is covered in designs. Cloud and wind patterns, flaming ornamental borders, rocks or mountain motifs, and characters standing back-to-back are common devices used to separate the plot-related scenes. Captions are written in the fluid script of archaic Old Javanese or Kawi.
     Traditional paintings are read like a comic strip, the characters and events represented in separate space cells, the scenes all taking place in a divine cosmic world with the same heroes appearing again and again in different attitudes. Important scenes are positioned in the center, peripheral events to the sides; gods are at the top, demons on the bottom. Sky and clouds are indicated by stylized, codified ornamentation.
     Each god is distinguished by details of dress and aspect which set him or her apart, whether they be halus ("refined" heroes, deities, and princes) or kasar ("rough" rogues, giants, retainers). Noble, high-bred figures wear rich courtly costumes, elaborate headdresses, and jewelry. Their faces are aloof and poised with a serene smile on their lips (even during the bloodiest battles), their arms and legs are long and thin like classical dancers.
     Coarse characters are denoted by their wild, bulging eyes, sinister sharp teeth, bulbous mouths and noses, hairy black scowling faces, and threatening poses. A character's attributes dictate his age, class, demeanor, position, and actions. For example, the eyes of women are downcast, those of men are proud and alert.
     Although rigidly standardized and holding to a inflexible set of conventions, traditional "Kamasan-style" paintings have a balance, a quality of design similar to that of Persian miniatures, Byzantine mosaics, or illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages. While European religious narrative art of medieval times portrayed episodes from the New Testament, Balinese religious art show scenes from their sacred, popular Hindu mythology.
     By far the finest original examples of traditional paintings date from the 14th century's Gelgel/Klungkung dynasties. These are found on the painted ceilings of the Kerta Gosa ("Hall of Justice") in Klungkung, where you can see (with the help of binoculars) the different tiers showing all the levels of existence between heaven and hell. The most famous panels illustrate the torments of evildoers-people being torn, impaled, crushed, mutilated, eaten, and boiled alive.
     All these paintings were rendered by anonymous medieval artisans lying on their backs for months on end. The kings, princes, and temple councils of other courtly centers in Gianyar, Tabanan, Sanur, Bangli, Singaraja, and Karangasem also commissioned ritual art.

Buying Traditional Paintings
Modern examples of traditional wayang-style cloth paintings are still created, particularly by artists living in the village of Kamasan, a few kilometers to the south of Klungkung (Klungkung Regency). These paintings make superb souvenirs because their cotton cloth can be folded easily. When you get back home, just stretch the canvas or spray or dampen it with water, then iron it carefully on the back on a low heat setting.
     In the past, the Kamasan studios worked with natural paints made from slivers of bone, a mixture of plain and holy water, and powdered stone (from which the color was derived). The paint's base was worked with a pestle and mortar for an hour, and the only color that was not natural was blue. Today, the majority of artists use acrylics because few people still know how to prepare the natural paints.
     Fine specimens of Kamasan paintings are seriously undervalued and masterpieces are available for Rp75,000-150,000-practically the cost of day labor and materials. As in former times, paintings are still unsigned and the artists are taught from a very early age not to express themselves in original and individual forms but in highly patterned ways.
     Look before you buy. Watch the painter at work if you can, then you know they're authentic. Spend time learning about the painting you're considering. Let it grow on you. What's the story behind it? Just like the stained-glass windows in the cathedrals of Europe, which illustrate fables from the gospels, these Kamasan paintings portray a certain character or god in Balinese legend. Have the artist explain the work to you.
     In the village of Krambitan, 20 km southwest of Tabanan, the painters' association Karya Dharma has revived a regional offshoot of traditional Balinese painting that thrived here during the 1930s. They produce wayang-style paintings but with more colors and a bolder style. For antique pieces, look in the antique shops of Klungkung and Kamasan.
     For something unusual, check out Balinese traditional calendars, which depict a cross section of Balinese culture. These paintings are chiefly made for tourists but are also used to predict the future. (See the special topic "The Balinese Calendar" for more information.) There are two kinds of these old-style calendars, both of which pictorially represent the days of the month. A small size with yellow coloring made in Bedulu (near Ubud) costs only Rp15,000 or thereabouts because it's easy work. The more classic style, made in the calendar-making center of Klungkung, starts at around Rp20,000.