GENEALOGY ANALYSIS OF SAJARAH BANTEN MANUSCRIPT’S ILLUSTRATIONS

• Main Author: Putri Ramadina, Savitri
• Format: Dissertations
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/55244
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Sajarah Banten is a group of 29 manuscripts about Banten Sultanate written in the range of the 17th century until the 19th. Among the 29 manuscripts, the only one that has the illustration is the script coded KBG 183 of the National Library of Indonesia collection. The KBG 183 manuscript described the genealogy of Banten sultans to Prophet Muhammad PBUH, the foundation of Banten Sultanate in the 16th century, a conflict between Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa and Sultan Haji at the end of 17th century, and ended with the capture of Sultan Ishak by the Dutch at the beginning of 19th century. The aesthetic tradition of ancient manuscripts in Java island depicted two-dimensional, stylized living beings which gradually shifted into a more naturalistic and perspective-based style. Yet the illustrations in Sajarah Banten did not depict any living beings. Its visual objects were dominated by flags, ships, buildings’ exterior and interior, and artifacts such as weapons and tools. There was no depiction of a specific event which refer to characters or places, which caused the manuscript to be more of documentation purposes. This paper intends to analyze the characteristics and role of illustration in Sajarah Banten manuscript by utilizing a genealogical approach. Discontinuity in a system, in this case was the unique visual characteristics different from manuscripts of the same period, could be analyzed by applying Michel Foucault’s genealogy method. Genealogy attempted to scrutinize the relations between knowledge, power, and subject by focusing on problems or ruptures in a system, which in this research were the relations between Sajarah Banten’s texts and illustrations, and to find its visual influences. Genealogy was also used to observe how KBG 183 was the only one illustrated among other Sajarah Banten manuscripts by using archaeology and genealogy, and the power-knowledge relation that shape this tendency. The research was done in two steps, which were archaeology to analyze the visual style in the illustrations, and to find the discursive formation which shaped their unique characteristics. The archaeological step observed the savoir; which was the general condition in Sajarah Banten illustrations which then the connaissance or ‘knowledge’ that shaped their characteristics was found. The archaeological results were non-interpretative and non-anthropologic, that it did not analyze the symbolic meanings in the illustrations but more of an objective description from Sajarah Banten illustrations. Next is the genealogy to observe the power-knowledge relations based on the body of knowledge, institutions, and figures connected to Sajarah Banten. The genealogical analysis looked at how the Power relation then affected which Knowledge being utilized that would shape the certain characteristics of Sajarah Banten illustrations. First by observing the episteme; which was the dispositif or discursive relation between power-knowledge which then shaped the general system of thought based on the knowledge, institutions, and figures. The result showed that Power-Knowledge relation in Sajarah Banten KBG 183’s illustrations contained assimilation between Indonesia’s visual tradition, Islamic visual style of aniconism, and European constructive drawing style and media. The difference of style in the illustrations of Sajarah Banten showed the artistic choice to adapt different visual styles from ethnic groups and cultures in Banten region. The power-knowledge relation implied Banten as axis of different cultures resided there: the Islamic Pegon alphabet and aniconism, paper and ink from Europe, and different visual style from Renaissance-inspired of the Western civilization. The visual tradition in western Java was not as strong as its oral tradition and its visual artefacts was scarce. Despite that, the illustrations of Sajarah Banten showcased the visual genealogy which then formed its own unique style.