Paradoxical Aesthetics in The Visual Style of Banten Sultanate’s Artifacts.

Abstract

In Jakob Sumardjo’s theory of paradoxical aesthetics, societies based on the central Javanese culture apply a pattern-five aesthetic based on wetland agriculture communities, while cultures of western Java and Banten apply a pattern-three aesthetic based on the field agriculture community. This research intends to identify the application of central Javanese’s pattern-five aesthetics related to the acculturation through Sunan Gunung Jati in the predominantly pattern-three Banten Sultanate’s artifacts using iconography method. The results showed that there are pattern-five aesthetics influence in the visual style of ornaments in the visual artifacts of the Banten Sultanate.