The
Bible Tiles in the National Archives Building Gajah Mada
The
house at Jl. Gajah Mada No. 111 in Jakarta was built in
1760 by Governor General Reynier de Klerk.
After several different owners, this building, which has
always been known by the Indonesians as
the National Archives Building, has been beautifully restored
to its original glory.
The Yayasan Gedung Arsip Nasional RI has as its main objective
the management of the Gedung Arsip Nasional
RI as a Cultural Centre. The building and its wings have
ample room for cultural presentations
and exhibitions.
By
Dr. Hans Bonke
Since the early 17th century, it was common
in Dutch houses to protect the walls of the
cellar, kitchen, corridors and fireplaces
against moisture and dirt with decorated glazed
tiles. The Verenigde Oostindische Company
(VOC) exported Dutch tiles to Asia.
When
Reynier de Klerk wanted to buy tiles to decorate
his new house in Jakarta, it was not necessary
for him to order these from Holland. He bought
them in the VOC warehouse in the ‘Ambachtskwartier’.
The
tile production in Holland followed the changing
taste of the buyers in Europe. The oldest
tiles had multicoloured decorations, such
as flowers or fruit. After 1640, the import
of blue and white Chinese porcelain changed
the taste of the Dutch middle class. The production of
multicoloured tiles ended and was replaced
by blue. In the 18th century, purple tiles
were added. At the turn of the century, flowers,
soldiers, mermaids and sea monsters were no
longer in vogue, being replaced by people or landscapes.
The Dutch abroad carefully followed the fashions
at home. In 1690 tiles with sea monsters,
which were old-fashioned in Holland, came to Batavia. The next
year an angry letter arrived in Holland, stating that
these tiles were out of vogue in Asia and
could not be sold.
Most of the Dutch population
were Protestants and a daily reading of the
Bible was common. The use of engravings by Mattheus
Merian (1650) and Jan Luiken (1712), made
it possible to illustrate the stories in the
Bible and the Holy Scriptures. Tiles with
these well-known pictures became very popular.
In the 18th century the VOC exported only
common landscapes and the more expensive Bible tiles,
together with the same amount of white tiles.
Examples of these tiles can also be found on
the grave of Mustoyib Ki Daeng in the Tamora
Mosque in Jakarta and in the Kesepuhan and
Kanoman palaces in Cirebon. The tiles were
also sent to the VOC offices in South Africa,
Sri Lanka and India.
Several writers suggest that the tiles in the
house of Reynier de Klerk were not imported
from Holland, but made in China following
Dutch examples. A closer look at the tiles
shows that this story cannot be true, because
of the following details which are specific
to 18th century Dutch tiles and not Chinese ones.
a. The yellow clay, covered with a tin
glaze.
b. The size of the tiles which was six ‘Amsterdamse
duim’ (130 x 130 mm)
c. The mark in the corners of the tiles,
left by the nail that kept the tiles on the
cutting board in place. This wooden board the size
of a tile was used to cut the tile out of a slab of clay.
d. Small differences in the same pictures,
due to the use of stencils to copy the outline
of the picture in charcoal onto the tile.
e. The Chinese painters, who copied European
prints often gave the European on Chine de
Commande porcelain a Chinese look. These
small Asian details are lacking on the Bible tiles of the
De Klerk house.
f. The purple colour of the tiles.
In the 18th century the only remaining tile
factories in western Holland were in Amsterdam
and three very successful factories in Rotterdam.
Certain details, such as the stained glass window in the
design and the shape of the oxhead corner
motifs, indicate a factory in Rotterdam. Both
details can be seen on tiles in the National
Archives Building Gajah Mada.
The requests from Asia for tiles during the
period that the house was built (1760 to 1765),
are incomplete in the VOC archives in Holland,
but there is at least one text that proves
that tiles were bought in Rotterdam.
In
1761 Batavia ordered 2,500 purple Historiën
tiles (Bible tiles). The VOC chamber in Rotterdam
bought these tiles together with 2,500 blue landscapes and 2,500
white tiles. The 15 wooden boxes were loaded
in the hold of the ship the ‘Vrouwe Elisabeth’.
This East Indiaman (a merchant ship trading
with the East Indies) left Rotterdam and arrived
in Batavia and, in time, the tiles were used in
the new house of Reynier de Klerk.
In 1900,
some of the tiles were removed from the house
and used in the VOCperiod room in the ‘Museum
of the Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en
Wetenschappen’. (This is now the Museum Nasional.)In
1925, the tiles at the De Klerk House had to be removed, because
the original locally-made floor tiles were
being replaced by a marble floor. The damaged bible
tiles were replaced in three layers along the plinth.
Today only 838 original tiles remain, of which
836 are decorated in purple with histories
from the Bible. They do not follow a story
line or give a proportional representation
of the Bible chapters. There are 519 tiles
with 64 stories from the Old Testament. Some
stories, like the Fall of Adam and Eve or
the Judgement of Solomon are represented by
only one tile. Abraham and Isaac are depicted
on twenty tiles.
The New Testament is represented in 58 stories
on 405 tiles. The Judas Kiss is the most common,
with 28 tiles. Christ washing the feet of
his disciples is second, with twenty pieces.
Two Bible tiles are cut in such a way that
the story cannot be recognised. Because
there were not enough purple tiles, two fragments
of two blue landscape tiles from the 18th century were added. During
the recent restoration, modern copies of the
Bible tiles were placed in the same chambers
which they occupied in the past.
Notes:
In 1508 an Italian ceramicist, Di Savano, settled in Antwerp
to make pottery and polychromic ceramic
tiles. The tiles showed clear Renaissance characteristics,
with Arabic motifs added to them. Other craftsmen followed
this
style in Antwerp and the industry grew until
the beginning of the 17th century. At that time, due to
the eighty-year war between the Netherlands and Spain, the
industry moved north.
Also, in the beginning of the 17th century, the East India
Company was importing blue chinaware and
Dutch craftsmen started to imitate this blue chinaware. Blue
tiles made their appearance too. The tiles became
more and more thematic and motifs from daily life took over
from ornamental motifs. Favorite motifs were craftsmen, knights,
children’s games, and flowers and animals.
Later followed a period of preference for ships,
marine
creatures, shepherds, landscapes and scenes from the Bible.
Around 1700 besides blue, the colour purple
was also used. Dutch tiles were exported
throughout Europe where they were used to decorate the houses
of the
rich. They were also used in churches and
palaces.
From 1750, competition from England and changing decorative
styles led to a decline of Dutch tile manufacture.
A brief respite occurred around 1900 with Art
Nouveau, also called Jugendstil. For a short time the tile
again played
an important role in architecture: tiles
in Jugendstil were used on front walls of houses, and
above doors and windows.
Sources:
Published
in The Indonesian Heritage Society Newsletter, September
2004
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