Sarong (1800s): Art, History and Details

Sarong (1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This sarong, overlaid with gold leaf (or gold dust), would have been worn for high ceremonial occasions and festivals. The gold has been applied only to the parts of the sarong that would show when draped, and on one side only. The delicate, linear design with Chinese phoenixes, butterflies, and leafy tendrils is one of the characteristic styles of batiks made in cities along the north coast of Java. The "tumpal" (triangle) design of the wide end border (a pan-Southeast Asian motif that commonly occurs on northern Javanese batiks) seems to have symbolized growth and fertility as well as the sacred mountain, Meru.

Object facts

• Title: Sarong
• Date: 1800s
• Culture: Indonesia, Java, North Coast, 19th century
• Type: Textile
• Technique: batik and applied gold, cotton
• Dimensions: Overall: 276.8 x 113 cm (109 x 44 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Textiles
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1928.656

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.