The Beauty of Glass Painting

A hidden artistic heritage of Cirebon that few people know about.

glass paintingIf Mas Komar hadn't taken me on the back of his motorbike that afternoon through the streets and alleys of Trusmi Wetan village, Plered, Cirebon, I might never have known that in addition to batik, this village is also a center of glass painting. And unlike the batik artists, who display and sell their batik creations in boutiques along the main road, the glass artists simply wait for their loyal customers –mostly art collectors– to come to their modest homes hidden in the back alleys.

Mas Komar took me to the home of Raden Sugro Hidayat, one of the pioneers of glass painting in Trusmi. The title 'Raden' indicates that he has a distant family relationship to one of the Cirebon royal houses (Kraton Kasepuhan Cirebon), though this obviously doesn't affect his economic status. When we arrived, Sugro (70) was busy tracing the sketch of a 20x25-cm glass painting of the Tiger of Ali. This is an ancient motif – a picture of a tiger made from Arabic calligraphy, which used to be used as a battle flag. On the walls of his home, as well as several awards for his glass painting, were two 45x60-cm glass paintings representing the wayang characters Kresna and Brajamusti. It turned out that Mas Komar had bought the Kresna painting for Rp 750,000.

Sugro, who learned how to paint on glass from his uncle, Raden Saleh Jawahir, a minor official (lurah) in the Kraton Kasepuhan, is in rather poor health these days, though his eyes are still sharp. He doesn't wear glasses but can still produce paintings with tiny dots as isen-isen (fill-in motifs), one of his trademarks.

Two other things that have made Sugro famous in the world of glass painting are his black and white glass painting technique and his discovery of the use of the crown pen for painting. Sugro showed us one of the pens he uses, and it took me back to my penmanship lessons in primary school. The teachers taught us to write cursive letters using such a pen, which had to be dipped in ink after every word or so.

It might seem that making black-and-white paintings would be easier than ones with many colors, because all you have to do is paint the glass white and then, when it's dry, apply the image in black. Not so. "Because there's only one color, if there's any mistake, such as just a drop of white or a line out of place, the whole impression is ruined," explained, Sugro, the father of three daughters. "But if you have a lot of colors, the viewer's attention is distracted by the other colors from a mistake with one color."

Unlike ordinary painting, in which the painter can simply pour out his idea with brushstrokes on the canvas, glass painting requires five stages. First, the painter produces a plek, a pattern or sketch on tracing paper of the object to be painted. The painter can produce the sketch by copying from other plek previously made by other painters, copy directly from an actual wayang –for painters who specialize in wayang paintings– or order a ready-made sketch from someone else. Second, the plek is placed below a pane of clear glass, which can be purchased from a building supply shop, in the desired dimensions, and the painter makes a rengreng, the contour or outline of the painting, directly on the glass from the plek below it. This rengreng or tracing is done using a rapidograph or a dip pen, depending on the painter's expertise.

glass paintingThird, after the outline is complete, the painter continues with the isen-isen, filling the space within the outline with dots or lines. Fourth is the nyungging process, coloring the object painted with the isen, using a fine paintbrush. Finally is the natar process, producing the background to the painting. After each stage in this process there is also a gap of one or two days to wait for the paint to dry, so that no flaws occur when new paint is applied in the next stage. The glass painting process is thus somewhat like the batik production process, except that glass painting has the advantage that the painter doesn't have to cover up the output from the previous stages with malam (paraffin), but simply waits for the paint to dry.

The completed glass painting is then framed, with the painted surface on the back side. So what we end up seeing is the reverse side of the painting, which is completely smooth and shows no paint strokes. This is what makes glass painting unique. It's no wonder that the technique is referred to as "negative style" because the painter produces the work from the back, while what we see is the front; much like the traditional way to view a wayang kulit performance.

Apparently glass painting first became popular during the rule of Panembahan Ratu II (1568-1646), the sixth sultan of Kraton Pakungwati, before the kingdom was split into the three kraton of Kasepuhan, Kanoman, and Kacirebonan. This is evident from the natural pigments used to produce the sunggingan that were popular back then. As times changed, natural pigments were replaced with synthetic pigments, and paint started to be used in around 1965. The most popular brand is Kuda Terbang (Flying Horse), with turpentine used for thinner. Sugro helped popularize the use of paint and thinner; before then, painters used inkwells.

Kuda Terbang is the favorite brand of paint because it does not dry too quickly, which gives the painter the chance to erase mistakes. "If you use metal paint, it dries too fast and makes things more difficult," Sugro explained. A 100-cc can of Kuda Terbang costs Rp 6000; if it's used for rengreng and isen-isen, one can is enough for ten paintings, or for four if it's used for the background.

The glass paintings made by Sugro, the other painters in Trusmi, and other painters in Cirebon are often referred to as classical glass painting, because the objects and motifs have been handed down from the past, such as the various calligraphy motifs, wayang motifs, kratonan (paintings of objects relating to the kraton), batik motifs, and so on. Unfortunately, none of Sugro's daughters has inherited his talent; luckily, however, several of his neighbors have followed his lead: Astika and his wife Satinah, and Eryudi –Astika's younger brother– and his wife Sairi.

Sairi, who lives right next door to Sugro, was making the rengrengan of a painting of the Sunyaragi Cave, a popular tourism venue in Cirebon. She had several finished 20x25-cm glass paintings sitting around, for sale at Rp 150,000 each. There was also a larger one –45x60 cm– which she planned to sell for Rp 1 million. All of these were kraton motifs: paintings of Taman Arum, Siti Hinggil, the tomb of Sunan Gunung Jati, and so on. Sairi is known as a woman painter who specializes in kratonan motifs. Her paintings, mostly in white, cream, various shades of blue, and red, are lovely and display a genuine Cirebon character. I was very impressed by her works.

I became even more impressed when I had the chance to try my hand at making a glass painting. I borrowed Sairi's pen and tried to make a rengrengan for the painting she was working on. But after trying several times to make some circular strokes on a flower motif, I gave up, because either the strokes were too broad or the connections between the strokes were messy. Luckily, it was easy enough to remove my faulty strokes with a damp cloth, as the paint was still wet. But if so many pen strokes are needed to produce just one line, how long must it take to make an entire painting? Sairi just smiled. For her, it takes only a week to do the entire process, and she can finish a small painting in only three days.