1983.69 Woman's ceremonial skirt (tapis)

Graceful ancestral boats with curving bows and sterns are embroidered with silk threads on two bands of this tapis. Each vessel carries five frontal figures. The central figure on the right boat—with a mica disk for a head—sits beneath a decorated arch and is flanked by others wearing feathered headdresses. Garlanded poles topped with mica disks separate them. The embroidered panels are displayed on richly dyed tricolored ikat panels inspired by imported Indian textiles. The addition of costly silk threads, mirrors, and gold foil gives this skirt a shimmering radiance.

Boats are a ubiquitous and seminal symbol in the textile arts of Indonesia, the world's largest island nation. They may simultaneously refer to the Dong Son era vessels (3rd-2nd century BCE) found on bronze ceremonial objects and large kettle drums, ancestral ships of the dead, and the role of women as "vessels" in perpetuating the survival of a clan. 

Roslyn Walker, Label text, 2016.

1970s - 1983: Steven G. Alpert, Dallas, Texas, purchased from Ansarunddin, Jakarta, Indonesia

1983: Dallas Museum of Art, purchased from above [1]

Notes:

The main source for this provenance is the Pacific American Corp. document titled "Dallas Museum of Art: The Steven G. Alpert Collection of Indonesian Textiles" in the Collections Records file labeled Steven G. Alpert—Indonesian Textiles. Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.

[1] See pages 1-4 of the correspondence between Harry S. Parker and Pacific American Corp. dated October 5, 1983, in the Collections Records file labeled Steven G. Alpert—Indonesian Textiles. 

Apply to objects where number equals 1983.69