Patterned Splendour: Textiles Presented on Javanese Metal and Stone Sculptures, Eighth to the Fifteenth Century

There exist numerous free-standing figurative sculptures produced in Java between the eighth and fifteenth centuries whose dress display detailed textile patterns. This surviving body of sculpture, carved in stone and cast in metal, varying in both size and condition, remains in archaeological sites and museums in Indonesia and worldwide. The equatorial climate of Java has precluded any textiles from this period surviving. Therefore this book argues the textiles represented on these sculptures offer a unique insight into the patterned splendour of the textiles in circulation during this period. This volume contributes to our knowledge of the textiles in circulation at that time by including the first comprehensive record of this body of sculpture, together with the textile patterns classified into a typology of styles within each chapter.

Lesley Pullen is a SOAS Post-Doctoral Research Associate and tutor of the Southeast Asian Art module for the Victoria & Albert Museum Arts of Asia year course.