A BRONZE DEATH MASK, GOA MADE, EAST JAVA, INDONESIA, 1ST MILLENNIUM BC - 1ST MILLENNIUM AD


Published:
Claudio Giardino, Massimo Vidale, and Gian Luca Bonora (editors), Goa Made - An Archeological Discovery, Rome, 2012, page 220, no. 112.

Indonesia. Finely cast from thin bronze, the mask is realistically styled with thin arched brows above heavy-lidded pierced eyes, a broad nose, and full butterfly lips curling into a calm smile. The face has finely aged, covered overall in a solid layer of malachite green encrustation.


Provenance:
A private collector in London, United Kingdom, and thence by descent to his daughter Amanda Torri. Alex Torri, Bologna, Italy, inherited from the above. Paolo Bertuzzi, acquired from the above in 2002. A copy of the original invoice from Alex Torri, dated 7 October 2002, showing an image of the present lot, and stating a purchase price of ITL 8,000,000 or approx.
EUR 6,300
(converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing), accompanies this lot. Paolo Bertuzzi (1943-2022) was a fashion stylist from Bologna, Italy, and the son of Enrichetta Bertuzzi, founder of Hettabretz, a noted Italian fashion company with customers such as the Rothschild family, Audrey Hepburn, and Elizabeth Taylor. Paolo Bertuzzi later took over his mother’s business and designed exclusive pieces, some of which were exhibited in the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, USA. He was also an avid collector of antiques for more than 60 years. His collection includes both archaic and contemporary art, and he edited two important books about Asian art, Goa Made - An Archaeological Discovery, about a large-scale archaeological project carried out with the Italian and Indonesian governments, and Majapahit, Masterpieces from a Forgotten Kingdom.

Condition:
Excellent condition commensurate with age. The shape has remained in its original form. As expected, the bronze has corroded overall and there are a soil encrustations. Minor losses and old wear.

Weight: 191.1 g
Dimensions: Height 18.5 cm


Goa (or Gua) Made
(Made Cave) is a site north of the Brantas River in East Java. Its importance was first discovered by Anacleto Spazzapan, an Italian archeologist, designer, and collector of ethnographic and folk art who frequently traveled to Indonesia. He was first introduced to the site in 1999. He brought back several sample fragments of fired clay, which he sent to Arcadia labs in Milan for thermoluminescence testing. The first official excavations were subsequently conducted in an underground temple by the Bureau for the Archaeological Conservation of East Java (BACEJ) in 2001 and 2006, the latter funded by Paolo Bertuzzi (the last owner of the present lot), who had developed a profound interest in the site. Finds included imported glazed pottery, Chinese copper or bronze coins, and highly distinct bronze heads such as the present lot
. Thermoluminescence analysis of terracotta bricks found in the excavations indicated a date in the early 1st millennium BC
. This would not only suggest the discovery of a lost civilization but also challenge widely held notions of Southeast Asian history. The earliest uncontested architectural remains in East Java are two temples dating from the 8th - 9th century AD.


In 2007,
larger-scale excavations were carried out by a team of Italian and Indonesian archeologists, which revealed a previously overlooked shaft, a complex subterranean structure displaying a sophisticated integrated design that would have required mass community involvement in both its construction and usage. In the following years, disagreements between archeologists involved in the Goa Made project began to emerge. A 2010 article by Andreas M. Steiner and Massimo Vidale in the renowned Italian magazine Archeo supported the dating of to the early 1st millennium BC. In the same year, however, Fiorella Rispoli wrote an article for World Archeology Magazine wherein she questions the accuracy of the thermoluminescence analysis and instead proposed a post-10th century AD dating for the bronze heads. Rispoli suggested that the underground temple was most likely a water control system but offers no explanation as to why or how the heads, a clear part of East Java religious practices, came to be placed there. Most scholars disagree with Rispoli’s arguments, especially given that it is primarily based off a single faulty thermoluminescence test she discovered.


Cultural acculturation
, the mixture of elements from various cultures over various ages implemented in religious contexts is a well-known practice in Indonesia. Settlers of the Indonesian archipelago had consistent contact with Indian traders which led to the adoption of many foreign religious practices. Unsurprisingly, this had a direct effect on the cultural material of Indonesia. Dong Son, the earliest bronze culture in Southeast Asia, was likely introduced to Indonesia by traders during the 1st millennium BC. More than 100 objects from Goa Made are bronze objects, and the majority of these are bronze masks. Many of the masks have characteristics elements which reflect the style of face common to the Majapahit period (13th-16th century). However, the masks which do not illustrate Indonesian facial styles, like the Malayan-Mongoloid face of this lot, are similar to nekara bronzes. This suggests a far earlier dating for these masks. Given the origin of bronze working in Indonesia came from the Don Son culture, these masks can be dated as far back as 2000 BC. However, archeologists are still not unified on this dating. In his 2016 book Hitawasana, Studies on Indonesian Archeology (where the present lot is illustrated, page 55), Prof. Dr. Agus Aris Munandar from the University of Indonesia wrote that further scientific studies remain necessary, and that additional research is expected to step-by-step resolve the questions regarding this important archeological site.