9 Moluccan Masterworks in the Dallas Museum of Art
9 Moluccan Masterworks in the Dallas Museum of Art
Curated by Steven G. Alpert
Last month, Art of the Ancestors featured nine of our favorite Moluccan pieces from the Indo-Pacific collection stewarded by Yale's University Art Museum. This month, we spotlight nine favorites from the Moluccan Collection that are permanently exhibited at the Dallas Museum of Art. In both cases, these features are intended to further link sublime pieces of superior quality and unerring craftsmanship with one another. While the majority of Moluccan material of the highest distinction is housed in the Museum Nasional Indonesia, Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen in the Netherlands, and the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Cologne, Germany, Yale University Art Gallery and the Dallas Museum of Art are the key repositories for preserving these particular island items in the United States.
Arguably, the most iconic Moluccan piece in the Dallas Museum of Art is its famous Porka festival mouth mask (luhulei.) The luhulei, along with three other complete masks (all featured in our Maluku gallery) and one fragmentary mask still in private hands, are all that remain of this once vibrant tradition. "These festivities, which abounded in song and dance and lasted for weeks, were disapproved of by missionaries and the Dutch colonial government due to their alleged encouragement of both headhunting and promiscuity" (de Jonge: 284). Starting around 1850, they were banned and their use suppressed. This mouth mask was worn by biting onto an extended flange and presumably danced with vigor as the rooster is the symbol of the valiant, irrepressible warrior.
Another outstanding item is an altar from a sanctuary depicting Luli, the first female ancestor or founding mother of a noble, matrilineal line of descent. Few of these highly individuated statues have survived, and this extraordinary example is the only one in an American museum. This Luli, from the island of Sermata, is depicted with her arms raised to listen, receive, guide, and affirm benedictions for her descendants. Carved from a single block of wood, she sits atop an offering box that resembles a shrine. The sanctuary's soaring decorated gable is thought to represent the tree of life combined with the floating amniotic fluid of the womb, asserting fertility and continuity. If one looks closely, the portico's entrance serves as the 'doorway' to the shrine and is fittingly in the form of a lorong or an omega-shaped earring.
In the realm of figurative sculpture, Dallas' ex-Van Lier Leti island figure of a male ancestor is a beautiful piece that poses a great artistic conundrum; one might even say a Picasso-esque challenge. How does an artist combine a finely rendered emotional, nearly portrait-like oversized head while successfully combining it with an abstract body? Here, curvilinear and linear elements; an exaggerated transitional neck, thin elongated backside, and bold s-curve legs — all combine in perfection and with a mastery of simple ease.
The museum's collection of personal or ceremonial adornment is also strong with its combs, necklaces, chest pendants, and golden roundels, including a classical headdress ornament with a human face from Luang, which ranks as one of the finest examples known. It was once worn only by the highest-ranking woman, the eldest descendant of the founding mother of a descent group.
From the world of weaponry, the handle of a sword from the Tanimbar islands is sumptuously composed of buffalo horn, bone, wood, and rattan bindings. The way in which the various plaques seamlessly fit together, its conceptual balance, possessed inner messages that once spoke to a successful warrior.
The handle is an abstract head and is supercharged with energy. En profile, to the lower right, there's an open gaping mouth with fully pursed and well-articulated lips. Above it, the area decorated with a continuous flowing design is reminiscent of a helmet's nasal bridge. At the same time, it would have evoked the stern of a great canoe for its handler. Stone megaliths carved in this precise manner were once raised on platforms. Using the metaphors of nautical language, the stern of a great ship summoned protection, strength, direction, and ancestral connectivity.
To further explore the arts of the Moluccas, a journey through Yale's Indo-Pacific material and the diverse scholarly works of Nico de Jonge, including the Dallas Museum of Art's Eyes of the Ancestors, pp 274-303, as well as Europe's remarkable holdings of this material, is highly recommended.
— Steven G. Alpert, founder of Art of the Ancestors
1
Porka Festival Mouth Mask | Luhulei
Indonesia, Southeast Moluccas, Leti, Luhulei
19th century
Wood, boar tusks, clam shell, mother-of-pearl, buffalo horn, resinous material, and pigment
14 x 16.2 x 14.6 cm
The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., 1997141.McD
2
Shrine Figure | Luli
Indonesia, Southeast Moluccas, possibly Luang or Sermata
19th century
Wood, shell
53.3 x 21.6 x 19.7 cm
The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., 1999.181 McD
3
Seated Male Ancestor Figure
Indonesia, Southeast Moluccas, Leti
Late 19th century
Wood
52.7 x 12.1 x 15.2 cm
The Otis and Velma Davis Dozier Fund and General Acquisitions Fund, 2003.21
4
Gold Headdress Ornament with a Human Face
Indonesia, Southeast Moluccas, Luang
19th century or earlier
Gold
29.2 x 15.9 x 3.8 cm
Gift of The Nasher Foundation in honor of Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher, 2008.67
5
Gold and Trade Bead Necklace with Anthropomorphic Pendants
Indonesia, Southeast Moluccas, Kisar
19th century
Gold pendants, gold and glass beads
30.5 x 19.1 x 1.3 cm
Gift of The Nasher Foundation in honor of Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher, 2008.72
6
Gold Pectoral Disc
Indonesia, Southeast Moluccas, Kisar
19th century
Gold
19.4 x 0.6 cm
Gift of The Nasher Foundation in honor of Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher, 2008.69
7
Gold Chest Pendant
Indonesia, Southeast Moluccas, Tanimbar Islands
19th century or earlier
Gold backed with turtle shell
10.2 x 12.7 x 0.2 cm
Gift of The Nasher Foundation in honor of Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher, 2008.68
8
Comb
Indonesia, Southeast Moluccas, Tanimbar Islands
19th to very early 20th century
Wood, bone, and feathers
44.5 x 17.8 x 4.5 cm
Gift of The Nasher Foundation in honor of Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher, 2008.73
9
Sword Hilt
Indonesia, Southeast Moluccas, Tanimbar Islands
19th century or earlier
Iron, wood, buffalo horn, bone, and rattan
80 x 3.2 x 14 cm
Gift of Steven G. Alpert and Family, 2007.7
All artworks and images presented in this feature are the property of the Dallas Museum of Art.
© Dallas Museum of Art