Wacana: Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia
Vol. 21, No. 2

The rhetoric of paintings; The Balinese <i>Malat</i> and the prospect of a history of Balinese ideas, imaginings, and emotions

Worsley, Peter (Unknown)



Article Info

Publish Date
18 Apr 2020

Abstract

Balinese paintings from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries shed light on how painters and their works speak to their viewers both about how Balinese in this period knew, imagined, thought, and felt about the world in which they lived, and about the visual representation and communication of these ideas, imaginings, and feelings through the medium of narrative paintings. In this paper I discuss five Balinese paintings of the Malat. The first two illustrate the episode in which Raden Misa Prabangsa stabs Raden Ino Nusapati’s horse. The third and fourth paintings illustrate Prabu Melayu’s rescue of his sister Princess Rangkesari of Daha from the court of the King of Lasem, and the fifth, the reuniting of Princess Rangkesari with her parents, the King and Queen of Daha. However, before I consider the paintings, I discuss briefly a number of historiographical issues concerning the reception of ideas, imaginings, and feelings conveyed in these five narrative paintings of the Malat and which need to be kept in mind when assessing interpretations of them.

Copyrights © 2020






Journal Info

Abbrev

publication:wacana

Publisher

Subject

Arts Humanities Languange, Linguistic, Communication & Media Library & Information Science Social Sciences

Description

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal published by the Faculty of Humanities, University of Indonesia. It invites original articles on various issues within humanities, which include but are not limited to philosophy, literature, archaeology, ...