Keris and Rembrandt

[stekemest]

I know the original painting. It is in fact a keris, but I'm not knowledgeable enough to describe it in detail. Rembrandt was a collector of ethnographica, and he certainly painted a piece he owned himself.

[A. G. Maisey]

Thank you for this clarification, Stekemest.

So, in the original, it is possible to see the ganja and the assymetric base of the blade?

[Gustav]

Very probably I see there just what I used to see all the time I know this picture.

I thought, it were possible to see a difference between sirah cecak and buntut cecak, also a big pejetan (and wavy gonjo).

[stekemest]

Yes. This part is quite dark though, and it is hard to see all the details. I can try to get a better picture of this part.
The painting can be seen in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt. If anyone intends to go there, send me a message.

[Rick]

Here

[David]

Yes, i think this is clearly a keris and i hope that from the enlargements made you see this as well Alan. From the look of what i can see of the hilt i think it's a fair bet that it is the same keris Rembrandt depicts in this painting. From what i know he owned a couple of examples which he used as models for his paintings.

[David]

Here is another Rembrandt, a self-portrait, which is most commonly titles "Self-Portrait as an Oriental Pontentate With A Kris". Here we see an asymmetric blade and a rather vague Kacang Kembang, but the blade itself is a very unusal one and i have a feeling that some artistic license was taken here to create a fanasty keris based upon examples he had or had seen.

[Rick]

Okay, this begs the question ;

In the blinding of Sampson what does the use of a keris represent ?

In what light was the keris viewed by European culture in that time ?

[David]

Good question Rick. It is, after all, the blade that does the "evil" deed of blinding him.
I don't know if this will look any clearer, but i found this better than average version for clarity and blew it up as much as i dared. I am sure that the original color is off, but hopefully it will clearly show this to be a keris.

[Gustav]

Originally Posted by Rick

Okay, this begs the question ;

In the blinding of Sampson what does the use of a keris represent ?

In what light was the keris viewed by European culture in that time ?

Probably the art keris was used was evident very early to the europeans - there is a report of a man named Henry Middleton from 1605, where a javanese sailor stabs to death with a "cryse" a dutch official, an eye-witness and another javanese, which resembles later reports about running amok or amuk.

I guess, becouse such situations, very quick and probably unexpected use of keris is beying connected with the fierce character of the javanese and bugis (Careri in 1695 says, orang laut draw their "crisis" out of the sheaths for the slightest reason), and has become also character associated with keris.

There is also one european epigraph on a sheath of a keris from Dresden collection, 17.cent., which says: "...brings fortune or misfortune". So some of the "keris mythology" were probably also evident to the europeans.

Interesting are the mentions of figural keris hilts, as depictions of devil (Levinium Hulsius, 1606).