<![CDATA[Batik is one of Indonesia’s cultural heritages, with motifs that are both diverse and intricate. The Kawung motif, characterized by repetitive circular patterns, is divided into sub-motifs such as Kawung Bribil, Kawung Sen, and Kawung Picis. Automatic classification of these sub-motifs is important for digital preservation but remains difficult due to subtle inter-class similarities. The aim of this research is to analyze the performance of VGG, ResNet, and DenseNet and determine the most effective CNN architecture in classifying the sub-motifs of Batik Kawung. The research method is a convolutional neural network-based image classification approach using a dataset of 300 Kawung Batik images evenly distributed across three classes. Preprocessing steps included grayscale conversion, resizing to 256 × 256 pixels, Canny edge detection, and normalization to the range [0,1]. The dataset was randomly split into 210 training, 60 validation, and 30 testing images. The results of this research are that VGG achieved the highest training accuracy of 97%, but only 67% on the testing set, indicating a tendency to overfit. In contrast, DenseNet achieved the best generalization performance with a testing accuracy of 80%, surpassing both VGG and ResNet. At the class level, DenseNet161 demonstrated consistent performance across all Kawung sub-motifs, with precision ranging from 67% to 91% and F1-scores between 71% and 95%. These results suggest that DenseNet161 not only performed effectively during training but also generalized well to unseen data, establishing it as the most robust architecture for sub-motif Batik Kawung classification. The results underscore the effectiveness of CNNs, particularly DenseNet, in classifying subtle batik sub-motifs. This research contributes to develope a reliable automated system for identifying Kawung batik, leveraging modern technology to support the preservation of Indonesia’s cultural heritage.]]>
