Weiner Mihályné szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 9. (Budapest, 1966)

HOPP FERENC MÚZEUM — MUSÉE FERENC HOPP - Kovács, György: A Balinese Painted Calendar

GYÖRGY KOVÁCS A B

ALINESE PAINTED CALENDAR In a 1963 issue of the periodical „Orientál Art" (London, Vol. IX., No. 2., pp. 89—94) Leland Gralapp publishes a long-needed article, „Balinese Paintings in the Taylor Museum", presenting reproductions of some pieces belonging to the Balinese picture collection of the said museum and outlining in a comprehensive way that specific area of Indonesian, to be more exact of Javanese and Balinese painting which has developed under the stylistic influence of Wayang theatrical art. The last words of this article's introductory sentence are suggestive of the regrettable fact that — for the most part — this area of Oriental painting is still inadequately known : „The group of Balinese paintings (gambaran) in the Collection of the Taylor Museum of the Colorado Springs Pine Arts Center provides a valuable index to stylistic and iconographie traits of this largely unfamiliar material. . . " This fact has induced the author to present, for lack of analogies, in a descriptive form, a Balinese astrological calendar painting in possession of the Hopp Perenc Par Eastern Arts Museum, as an unpretentious contribution to the actual scope of knowledge on this subject. According to the statement included in the above-quoted article, traditional Balinese painting can be divided into two main categories of themes which can best be specified by the words „gambaran" and „palelintangan" of the Javanese (and of the Balinese) language. The basic meaning of the word „gambar" is: figure, picture, drawing, to draw, etc., while its derivative „gambaran" means picture, delineation and, in general, painting; on the traditional line, the gambaran is primarily a picture reflecting the stylistic influence of Wayang theatrical art and representing the remarkable events of the Hindoo epic works, the Mahabharata and the Rámáyana, events which are playing a dominant role in Wayang theatrical art. (For further details, cf. the quoted article.) The basic meaning of „lintang" is star, movement of stars, etc., while its derivative „palelintangan" means a constellation and paintings representative threreof. The very denomination shows that, although the style of these paintings is generally the same as that of the gambaran, they are utterly different in subject. The palelintangan does not represent legendary events or historical episodes of the Javanese Middle Age, but astrological symbols personified by gods, demons, men, animals, plants and objects of nature, paraphrasing the contexts of data and events outlined by the doctrines of astrology as they are assumed to penetrate the fate of humans. One of the reproductions published in the quoted article (p. 93) presents