The Beamwork Illustrated at Prambanan

Jacques Dumar^ayThe balustrades surrounding the terraces on which are built the three m ain shrines of Prambanan in Central Java are decorated on the inner side with reliefs illustrating Indian epics.The scenes showing the different episodes often include some architectural details.The sculptors, to produce these views, used several representational techniques.The sim plest is an orthogonal projection of a building (Figure 1) which is often combined with a perspective effect obtained by reducing a facade.Aerial perspective is also used (Figure 2), and also a method deriving from this: an almost axonometrical view upwards (Figure 3), in contrast to the aerial view, which looks down.None of these devices is followed rigorously and a concern for accurate representation does not prevail to the same degree in all three shrines.Details of buildings are completely absent in the southern shrine, numerous but unvaried in the central shrine, and few but carefully illustrated in the northern shrine.The three buildings which we shall try to reconstitute are, for this reason, on the inner side of the balustrade of the northern shrine.Two are near the northeast com er, and the third on the western facade.The first construction is entirely without partitions and is raised on piles; it consists of a main building with an adjacent lean-to.The sculptor has used aerial perspective for the roof of the lean-to, but for the main building has employed an orthogo nal projection with a face folded on the same plan

Architectural and Urban Studies · Asian Studies and History · Computer Science · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies

• In Memoriam Jacques Dumarçay (1926-2020)

  Open Access•Hélène Njoto•Archipel•2021

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