Portrait of an Administrator (Mantri)

Mantri is an old word that came into Javanese from Sanskrit, and it covered offices from fairly humble to ministerial. The modern Indonesian word for a government minister, menteri, is the same word. In 19th-century Java, under Dutch colonial rule, a mantri held a modest post in the local administration, below the wedono, the district head. That is the rank the Rijksmuseum's title gives this man. He wears a dark jacket of Western cut with gold buttons and a red standing collar, over a dark batik with pale scrolling shapes and a lighter panel of geometric pattern falling down the front. A white sash binds his waist, the hilt of a Balinese kris shows above his shoulder, and he stands barefoot on a tiled floor. He is one of five court officials in a series painted between about 1820 and 1870.