The Inseparable Couple: Loro Blonyo at the National Museum of Scotland | Commentary by Steven G. Alpert
The Inseparable Couple
Loro Blonyo at the National Museum of Scotland
Curated by Steven G. Alpert
Loro blonyo, or the 'inseparable couple,' are a carved wooden pair of Javanese matrimonial figures. It is said that these were first created during the reign of Sultan Agung of the Mataram Kingdom (1613-1645). Customarily, they are placed in the middle of the three rooms that form part of the living quarters in a joglo or traditional house. This is a sacred central place where a ceremonial bed and the two figures oversee a living shrine where Javanese-style semiotics, rituals, and historical syncretism converge and are perpetually maintained.
The couple reflects the philosophical and mystical union between female and male principles as represented by Dewi Sri and her consort, Raden Sadono. Dewi Sri is the goddess of rice, good harvests, and the insurer of fertility. She is also the female embodiment of the Hindu god Vishnu. In this instance, 'Syncretism' means a layered understanding of culture that has spanned Java's Animistic, Buddhist, Hindu, and Islamic legacies to become something kejawen or quintessentially Javanese.
Loro blonyo are protective, generative doppelgangers. They are also conjugally the embodiment of pitutur luhur, the counsel and advice of one's ancestors or ancestral line. Luhur literally means '(our deepest) roots.' To this day, the Sultan of Yogyakarta must administer his realm from the summit of the great sacred volcano, Mt. Merapi, to the edge of the sea at Parangtritis Beach. The city of Yogyakarta was built exactly equidistant from these two polarities to augur for grace, universal harmony, and spiritual balance.
At Art of the Ancestors, we enjoy illustrating creations that are, by any standard, world-class works of art that reflect portals of the human experience for the benefit of our readers.
As someone who began curating objects and learning deeply from other cultures and historical horizons over sixty years ago, it has been a thrill and a humble privilege to have lived with pieces that, without question, are the finest examples of their genre extant.
My dear friend and enlightened collector, the late Saul Stanoff, once opined: "To own a masterpiece is to own a collection." This 17th-18th century pair of loro blonyo once graced my home in Texas. They were originally purchased in England by James and Marilynn Alsdorf, famous generational collectors from Winnetka, Illinois, not far from where I grew up. Eventually, after some years of inquiring about these statues, "Uncle Jimmy" let me acquire them. This beautiful pair of loro blonyo projects a palpable sense of strength and peacefulness, coupled with a cultivated reserve. They are divine.
After going through several successive hands, they entered the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, where they are now lovingly and aptly displayed under the heading "World Cultures: Patterns of Life."
