Raden Saleh's Interpretation of the Arrest of Diponegoro : an Example of Indonesian proto-nationalist Modernism - article ; n°1 ; vol.69, pg 259-294

Werner Kraus

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Archipel - Année 2005 - Volume 69 - Numéro 1 - Pages 259-294
Werner Kraus
Raden Saleh's Interpretation of the Arrest of Diponegoro : an Example of Indonesian proto- nationalist Modernism
L'arrestation de Diponegoro fut représentée par le peintre néerlandais Pieneman au début des années 1830, dans la tradition des interprétations héroïques de l'histoire néerlandaise. Diponegoro apparaissait soumis, de même que toute sa famille et sa suite. Tous les personnages du tableau semblaient comprendre que la rude action de De Kock avait pour but le bien des Javanais. L'approche de Raden Saleh est différente. C'est un Diponegoro furieux qui est le personnage actif, au centre du tableau. Son regard est provoquant, alors que celui des officiers néerlandais est figé et ne croise les yeux de personne. Le tableau de Saleh peut être interprété à deux niveaux : le premier emploie la perspective de la culture javanais ; le second prend en compte l'histoire de la peinture européenne. Cet unique tableau historique de Raden Saleh suit de près celui de Louis Gallait de 1841, L'abdication de Charles V, qui était l'un des tableaux historiques clefs dans les années précédant la Révolution de 1848. Louis Gallait était belge. Son tableau doit être compris comme une déclaration politique majeure envers le gouvernement néerlandais : notre lutte pour l'indépendance aujourd'hui ressemble à la vôtre il y a 400 ans. Raden Saleh saisit le message et le transforma en une déclaration proto-nationaliste : le Prince Diponegoro est le Guillaume le Taciturne javanais ; sa lutte contre l'occupation étrangère doit être comprise comme le possible début de la fin de la souveraineté néerlandaise à Java. Interprété de cette manière, Raden Saleh représente une partie, ou pour mieux dire une figure de proue, d'une conscience modernisante et mondialisante à Java.
36 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

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• Publié par: ARCHIPEL0
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2005
• Nombre de lectures: 192
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

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Werner Krauss
Raden Saleh's Interpretation of the Arrest of Diponegoro : an
Example of Indonesian "proto-nationalist" Modernism
In: Archipel. Volume 69, 2005. Autour de la peinture à Java. Volume I. pp. 259-294.
Résumé
Werner Kraus
Raden Saleh's Interpretation of the Arrest of Diponegoro : an Example of Indonesian "proto- nationalist " Modernism
L'arrestation de Diponegoro fut représentée par le peintre néerlandais Pieneman au début des années 1830, dans la tradition
des interprétations héroïques de l'histoire néerlandaise. Diponegoro apparaissait soumis, de même que toute sa famille et sa
suite. Tous les personnages du tableau semblaient comprendre que la rude action de De Kock avait pour but le bien des
Javanais. L'approche de Raden Saleh est différente. C'est un Diponegoro furieux qui est le personnage actif, au centre du
tableau. Son regard est provoquant, alors que celui des officiers néerlandais est figé et ne croise les yeux de personne. Le
tableau de Saleh peut être interprété à deux niveaux : le premier emploie la perspective de la culture javanais ; le second prend
en compte l'histoire de la peinture européenne. Cet unique tableau historique de Raden Saleh suit de près celui de Louis Gallait
de 1841, L'abdication de Charles V, qui était l'un des tableaux historiques clefs dans les années précédant la Révolution de
1848. Louis Gallait était belge. Son tableau doit être compris comme une déclaration politique majeure envers le gouvernement
néerlandais : notre lutte pour l'indépendance aujourd'hui ressemble à la vôtre il y a 400 ans. Raden Saleh saisit le message et le
transforma en une déclaration proto-nationaliste : le Prince Diponegoro est le Guillaume le Taciturne javanais ; sa lutte contre
l'occupation étrangère doit être comprise comme le possible début de la fin de la souveraineté néerlandaise à Java. Interprété de
cette manière, Raden Saleh représente une partie, ou pour mieux dire une figure de proue, d'une conscience modernisante et
mondialisante à Java.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Krauss Werner. Raden Saleh's Interpretation of the Arrest of Diponegoro : an Example of Indonesian "proto-nationalist"
Modernism. In: Archipel. Volume 69, 2005. Autour de la peinture à Java. Volume I. pp. 259-294.
doi : 10.3406/arch.2005.3934
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/arch_0044-8613_2005_num_69_1_3934Werner Kraus
Raden Saleh's Interpretation of the Arrest ofDiponegoro :
an Example of Indonesian "proto-nationalist" Modernism
Neem, schildervorst, uw teekenstift,
Als veldheersstaf ter hand,
Verover voor den landgenoot
Der kunsten heilig land. W
What is 'modern' ? What means 'modern art' in the context of Southeast
Asian culture ? How did Western pictorial representations transform the
aesthetics of Asian minds ? Why was Western Renaissance linear perspective
accepted in the East? After all linear perspective creates a highly artificial
representation of space and "belongs more to visual symbolism than to the
structure of vision " (2). As Ernst Panofsky has shown in his article Die
Perspektive als symbolische Form, published already in 1925, the capacity to
interpret the pictorial statement of a perspective representation is a learned
skill and a cultural attribute.
Was the change imperialistically imposed ? Or was it accepted because it
worked more convincingly than traditional representations ? And did the new
mode of representation influence in any way the future development of East
and Southeast Asian thought, just as the invention of Renaissance linear per
spective influenced the minds of Europeans and was basically responsible
for the rise of natural science ? What changes were needed in the mental
frames of the people in Southeast and East Asia to step out of their cultural
1. Banck, J.E., "Aan Raden Saleh, Na een bezoek in zijn atelier". In Zeepbellen : lyrische
dichtproeven Amsterdam : L.F.J. Hassels, 1860, p. 44.
2. Swiderski, Richard M, "The dragon and the straightedge, part 1 : A semiotics of the
Chinese response to European pictorial space", in Semiotica Vol. 81-1/2, 1990, p. 1.
Archipel 69, Paris, 2005, pp. 259-294 Werner Kraus 260
continuum and look at the world with different eyes ? Did they actually step
out of their continuum ? Or was the new art incorporated into it ?
Next to the 'how' stand the 'who'. Ideas are not disseminated by the
wind, but by persons. Who's done it? Who was the vessel?
These are important questions that have and need to be attended to by
regional scholars and this paper is another small step in the above sketched
direction. I would like to follow up one argument of John Clark. He states,
that the nationalist discourse was taken up and maybe even started by artists
in Southeast Asia at an early time, that we might have to look for the very
first kernels of 'national' or 'modern' sentiments in the arts :
"Among the earliest expressions of this is Raden Saleh's 1850s depiction of The Capture
of Prince Diponegoro by General de Kock after the Java War of 1825-30, a painting that
declares, I think, 'you did this to us, but we are still us' ". (3)
In the following I will try to put some flesh to the bones of this statement.
I will revisit Raden Saleh's best known painting Arrest of Pang e ran
Diponegoro again, and will attempt to reinterpret it, along the lines of
European art history as well as through the perspective of Javanese cultural
ideas. Hopefully this piece of archaeology will increase our knowledge about
the beginnings of modern art and modernity in Java to some extent (111. 1).
This is not the first paper about the painting in question. Many years ago
Peter Carey published a brilliant historical interpretation, (4) and many others
have, in snorter or longer replicas, looked at the painting from one or the
other angle.
This is not surprising since The Arrest of Diponegoro is the first Southeast
Asian painting in the tradition of European historical painting, the first paint
ing done by an artist from the region (apart from certain works of folk art)
that deals with a Southeast Asian historical event. (5) At the same time it is
the only historical painting Raden Saleh ever did, unless we accept the exis
tence of a mysterious Battle oflsly. (6)
3. Clark, John, Modern Asian Art, Sydney [etc.] : Craftsman House : G+B Arts International,
1998, p. 241.
4. Carey, Peter, "Raden Saleh, Dipanagara and the Painting of the Capture of Dipanagara at
Magelang (28 March 1830)", Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,
Vol. 55, 1, 1982.
5. It is possible to argue that Esteban Villanueva's Basi Revolt of 1821 in the Philippines is
an earlier historical painting, but it is not produced within the same discourse of European
painting" as we find in Raden Saleh's work. See Flores, Patrick, D., Painting "history
History : Revisions in Philippine Colonial Art, Quezon City, Office of Research
Coordination, University of the Philippines & Manila, National Commission for Culture and
the Arts, 1998, pp. 25-26. (I have to thank John Clark for this comment).
6. According to Rita Wassing-Visser, Royal Gifts from Indonesia. Historical Bonds with the
House of Orange-Nassau (1660-1938), Zwolle 1993, Raden Saleh presented a Battle oflsly
to the Dutch King Willem II. The battle at Isly (1844) was part of the French colonization of
Archipel 69, Paris, 2005 Raden Saleh's Interpretation of the Arrest of Diponegoro 261
Illustration non autorisée à la diffusion
111. 1 - Raden Saleh, The arrest of Diponegoro, (1 857).
Oil on canvas, 1 12 x 179 cm, Museum Istana Jakarta.
Archipel 69, Paris, 2005 Werner Kraus 262
Historical painting has been a major subject of European art production
since the days of Italian renaissance. But it was during the 19th century that
it reached its climax. 19th century Europe was dominated by historicism and
fascinated by the idea of historical recurrence. Political and cultural events
were regarded as recurring mirror images of former developments. Although
natural science and technology developed in unprecedented speed, culture
held its breath, turned inward and backward. 19th century men built houses
that looked more gothic than the gothic cathedrals of old, administration
buildings that looked more baroque than baroque mansions of the 17th cen
tury and the study of Greek and Roman culture was at its peak. Walter
Benjamin claims in his Arcades Project that 19th century bourgeoisie
returned to the archaic and mythological concept of "historical recurrence",
because it didn't dare to confront itself with the cultural implications of it's
newly established mode of production : capitalism. (7)
The century was "addicted to history". The "awakening of the nation"
was part of that development and paved the way of European imperialism.
Hist