Arjuna: Permadi
Item
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Title
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Arjuna: Permadi
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Creator
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Unidentified artist
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Subject
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Shadow puppet
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Culture
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Javanese
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Medium
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Buffalo leather; buffalo horn; pigments
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Format
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26 3/4 x 1 1/8 inches; 67.9 x 26 cm
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Description
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Arjuna Permadi refers to Arjuna when he was “good looking.” Arjuna is one of the most popular wayang characters in Java and Bali as his adventures to find love and prowess never cease to entertain the Javanese and Balinese. In the Mahabharata epic, Arjuna is the third brother of the Pandawa who is tasked with killing Karna, one of the Kurawas, in the Great Battle of the Bharata. The conflict between fulfilling a duty and the hesitance to kill his own kin is one of the major sequences in the Mahabharata story. He is always depicted in a refined manner to depict his halus character - the embodiment of his quiet, polite, conscientious, and brave nature. Even though he is an unmatched hero in the battlefield, he is physically delicate and beautiful. He has both a strong will and a tender heart, a satrya or a noble warrior with a deep sense of loyalty towards his family but who is forced to kill his own step-brother, Karna. For many Javanese, Arjuna is the epitome of the whole man.
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Provenance
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Gift of Claire Holt and Benedict R.O'G. Anderson
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Rights
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Collection of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. Coll. no. 81.033.005
