Indonesian Shields in Global Museum Collections
Indonesian Shields in Global Museum Collections
Curated by Steven G. Alpert
This month, Art of the Ancestors is pleased to present an array of shields that are stewarded in public collections worldwide. Geographically, these items hail from across the archipelago, traversing a vast expanse of over 3,100 miles (5,000 km), from Enggano and Mentawai, islands in the far West off the coast of Sumatra, to Indonesia's province of Western New Guinea in the East. Many of these island cultures produced shields. As one would expect, the range of shield types, including their shapes, sizes, various uses, and design content, varies greatly. Only Papua New Guinea, when taken as a whole entity, rivals Indonesia in this respect. While there are other remarkable shield traditions further to the East, ranging from the Solomon Islands to New Britain, they generally follow a limited typology of related patterns or variations on similar themes. If one examines the finest older Indonesian shields in terms of their variety and visual content, the archipelago stands tall.
The use of traditional shields once spanned most of the globe. The development of shields goes back to our very beginning, from moveable barricades fashioned to conceal early paleo-hunters to the development of countless martial strategies and techniques inherent to survival and success in combat. Archaeologically, war shields dating from nearly 5,000 years ago have been excavated in Mesopotamia and Egypt. The earliest physical documentations of shield usage in Indonesia are most likely the small, unearthed metal statuettes from the Bronze Age to Early Iron Age (500 BC to 300 AD) that depict warriors from Lumajang Regency (Pasirian) near the southeast coast of Java. There are also numerous references to round and oblong shields among the stone figures or friezes from the Pasemah plateau to Indic (Buddhist and Hindu) sites in south Sumatra and throughout Java and Bali. Among the representations of the mother goddess, Durga, one can observe her often brandishing a finely decorated shield in one of her many arms. Another image that is periodically reproduced and instructive for our purposes was taken by the art historian and Indonesian specialist Claire Holt. It depicts warriors in mock combat from Central Java's famed Borobudur Temple (ca. 800 AD). Even to this day, in scenes reminiscent of this frieze, ritualized combat is still practiced in the archipelago, which involves the use of shields.
It stands to reason that when Europeans first encountered Indonesia in the 16th-17th century, and, in fact, continuing throughout the entire colonial period, arms and armor were among the first cultural items that caught their attention. Europe's early kunstkammers or wunderkammers of curiosities often contained such items. For example, the most readily recognized source of Indonesian weaponry is the glorious Dutch painter Rembrandt. His 1634 self-portrait as an Asian potentate shows him brandishing an Indonesian keris. In Berlin's Samson betrayed by Delilah (1629-1630), the fallen hero's well-depicted Indonesian blade is integral to the painting's overall composition. Conversely, the oldest collection date for a shield entering a European museum is a 17th-century one that was accessioned into the Royal Danish Collection in 1710. It's an elongated hour-glass shaped shell inlaid Moluccan shield of a type generically known as a salawaku. It is similar to a number of examples currently housed in the Yale University Art Gallery and to those also found in other public institutions. Winnowing through the stacks in museum depots, storage basements, and attics, one is often pleasantly surprised to discover aesthetically rewarding shields.
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-1669). Self-Portrait with Raised Sabre, 1634. Etching on laid paper, Plate: 4 3/4 x 4 in. (12.1 x 10.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. Charles Pratt, 57.188.47
Looking through the lens of today, it could be easy to simply categorize shields as decontextualized curios of conquest and cruel encounters. Yet, shield-based symbolism is also deeply rooted in European mythology and history. European colonial biases aside, shields were and still are a conversant topic conceptually accessible to all. We may think of shields as going out of fashion with medieval knights, but they were used into the 18th century, particularly in Scotland. This may help to explain why there are so many examples of Indonesian shields extant in Western museum collections. Colonial administrators, soldiers, and travelers were all familiar with such items from their own cultural backgrounds. In his essay for the Dallas Museum of Art's Eyes of the Ancestors (pages 30-31), Dr. Reimar Schefold, the ethnographer of the Mentawai islands, pairs two concepts that can be applied to objects, including shields, that are enriching to ponder. If something is technically perfect, "exactly corresponding" to the ancestors, and made as well or as beautifully as it can be, it is called 'Makire.' On the other hand, 'Mateu' is "the relation of a given object to its perceived context." This concept is further translated by Dr. Schefold as "fitting." For example, does the soul of a given object, again in this case a shield, beyond its size, heft, and decoration, 'fit' well with its owner in a positive, forceful way? Whoever handles the arms of another person or culture (especially if they themselves were martially trained) tends to evaluate them in their own fashion, but with some, even if vague, kinship for the dual qualities of makire and mateu. It is thus not a coincidence that there are numerous European references to shields in early encounters with traditional Indonesians that carry into later scholarly works, general ethnographies, and art books.
In Indonesia, shield use was developed over many centuries to fit specific modes of individual engagement in order to parry, thrust, catch, and utilize in siege techniques and ambushes. Shields can range from small, light parrying devices to larger body-protecting forms. They were employed in many other ways, too. Danced in mock aggression and celebration before and after raids, specific shields were favored by shamans and seers in divination and healing ceremonies and carried by females in harvest or fertility rituals. Among some groups, for instance, the Iban, shields were used horizontally to transport the dead from battle or as latter-day makeshift altars.
To my knowledge, the first publication that includes this region and is exclusively devoted to shields accompanied a landmark show at Boston College in 1996. It was entitled Protection, Power and Display — Shields of Island Southeast Asia and Melanesia. The catalog was the brainchild of Andrew Tavarelli, a talented painter and former professor at B.C. Andrew's extensive travels in Southeast Asia informed him while observing shields in their original context and as distinct works of art, the subject of many of our personal conversations. One way to look at a finely painted shield is to see it as a universal and complex canvas that reflects some of our deepest insights and most basic needs. Protection, Power and Display was followed by Boucliers d’Afrique, d’Asie du Sud-Est, et d’Océanie du Musée Barbier-Mueller (Shields of Africa, Southeast Asia, and Oceania at the Barbier-Mueller Museum) in 1998, which featured a Mentawai shield on its cover. Both tomes inspired our recently departed friend, Bill Evans to focus on collecting and publishing shields. In 2005, Shields of Melanesia (Ed: Barry Craig) combined the work of talented contributors (including Evans) to survey the collections of shields within major Australian museum collections. In the same year, Dirk Smidt's Asmat Art: Woodcarvings of South West New Guinea appeared, which illustrated many superior examples of Asmat shields in one publication. The latest publication on the subject, fostered and made possible by Bill Evans, is the important double volume, War Art & Ritual: Shields from the Pacific, 2019, with contributions from seven authors, all of whom had written conversantly on shields in the past.
Among the most intriguing of all shields are the painted ones from Mentawai, Borneo, and Sulawesi. At their highest level of execution from the hands of an expert maker, these can manifest and showcase the talents of a visionary, a virtuoso graphic artist, a fine woodworker, and a war leader in a sole creation. The most aesthetically pleasing of these shields can have provocative designs on both the front and the reverse surfaces. At times, the inner gripping side was embellished to engender protection with visual psychological reminders that beseech success, totemic allegiances, and ancestral connections. This was, in part, combined with long years of martial training to assist in upholding a shield user's courage and steadfastness. In contradistinction, the painted and/or incised designs on a shield's obverse side were meant to startle enemies and radiate power. By 'startling,' we mean anything that might give a warrior the slightest tactical advantage that could be parlayed into victory. By invoking powerful totemic relationships or calling forth spirit beings (in a worldview where everything was filled with 'life'), powerful designs theoretically could provide momentary practical and strategic benefits, whether in a prelude to combat or the heat of an engagement. Traditional shield designs are never capricious or merely decorative. Nor can they be easily interpreted, as we almost never know the exact circumstances or mindset under which a grand old shield was crafted. Nevertheless, designs on a shield broadcast much about the owner's status and skill as an interlocutor with the divine or as a vaunted warrior.
As with traditional Indonesian doors and doorways, shields also serve as thresholds, projecting real and imagined lines that exist between safety and danger, power and protection. Linguistically, our relatively modern use of the word 'target' refers to a small round plane with defined borders that can absorb bullets or arrows, etc. This word's derivation is actually from Old English, Frankish, and northern European languages and emerged only in the 18th century from its more ancient root, 'targa,' which originally meant to 'border.' As an object, a targa was a modestly sized circular war shield. In all their uses and dimensions, shields remain with us, whether used as targets, in heraldry, or employed by modern riot police to control unruly crowds. In Indonesia, whether from antiquity, Indic, Islamic, or local traditional cultures, shield-making at its best has provided posterity with compelling expressions of the human experience.
— Steven G. Alpert, founder of Art of the Ancestors
1
Painted Wooden Shield with Lizard Image
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
The Netherlands
Enggano
1900-1925
Wood, pigment
TM-244-4
2
Shield
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
The Netherlands
Enggano
Before 1886
Wood, pigment
WM-3522
3
Shield with Painted Animal and Human Motifs
GRASSI Museum für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig
Leipzig, Germany
Mentawai
Wood, paint, rattan, coconut shell
Collected by Johannes Schild,
German consul in Padang before 1901
SAs 00714
4
Shield | Koraibi
The Dallas Museum of Art
Texas, USA
Siberut, Mentawai
c. 1900
Wood, paint, rattan, coconut shell
Gift in loving memory of Corinne Galinger Alpert by the Alpert Family
1999.135
5
Shield with Human Face
The British Museum
London, England
Batak
Circa early 19th-century
Hide, fiber, pigment
Donated by S R Robinson in 1895
As1895,0902.12
6
Painted Shield
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
The Netherlands
Toraja, Sulawesi
Rattan, wood, buffalo hide, paint
RV-1818-22
7
Painted Shield
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
The Netherlands
Sa'dan-Toraja, Sulawesi
1900-1925
Wood, paint
TM-46-8
8
Painted Shield
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
The Netherlands
Luwu, Toraja, Sulawesi
Buffalo hide, wood, rattan, paint
RV-3600-5827
9
Kenyah Shield
The British Museum
London, England
Borneo
Kenyah peoples
19th century
Wood, paint
Purchased from Dr. Charles Hose in 1905
As1905,-.720
10
Dayak Shield | Kelebit
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
The Netherlands
Borneo
Dayak peoples
Before 1890
Wood, bamboo, paint
RV-761-227
11
Painted Shield
Kulturhistorisk Museum Universitetet i Oslo
Oslo, Norway
Borneo
Wood, pigment
UEM31730/a
12
Shield with Human Face
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
The Netherlands
Borneo
Wood, tin, pigment
RV-1525-11
13
Dayak Shield
The British Museum
London, England
Borneo
Dayak peoples
1800-1860s
Wood, pigment, tin?
Donated by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks in 1871
As.7291
14
Shield
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
The Netherlands
Borneo
Wood, rattan, pigment
RV-934-15
15
Shield | Salawaku
Yale University Art Gallery
New Haven, Connecticut
Seram, Maluku
Probably Alfur
19th century
Wood, shell inlay, bamboo, rattan
Gift of Robert Holmgren and Anita Spertus, New York
2011.224.1
16
Shield | Salawaku
Yale University Art Gallery
New Haven, Connecticut
Halmahera, Maluku
19th century
Wood and mother of pearl
Promised gift of Thomas Jaffe, B.A. 1971
ILE2012.30.380
17
Geelvinck Bay Dance Shield
de Young | Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
San Francisco, California
19th - early 20th century
West Papua, New Guinea
Southwestern Geelvinck Bay (Teluk Cenderawasih), Roon Island
Wood, pigments, hair
Formerly in the Marcia and John Friede Collection
18
Auyu Shield
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
The Netherlands
Mappi Regency, South Papua
Auyu peoples
1925-1952
Wood, red ochre, chalk, charcoal
TM-2130-1
19
Asmat Shield
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
The Netherlands
Southwest Papua
Asmat peoples
Before 1913
Wood, red ochre, chalk, charcoal
RV-1854-446
20
Asmat Shield
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
The Netherlands
Southwest Papua
Asmat peoples
Before 1958
Mangrove wood, red ochre, chalk, sago palm fiber
WM-46737
21
Asmat Shield
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
The Netherlands
Southwest Papua
Asmat peoples
Before 1913
Wood, chalk, red ochre, charcoal
RV-1971-974f
All artworks and images presented in this feature are the property of the attributed museums.
