Painting and Sculpture From India

The cultural heritage of India is one of the richest and most ancient in the world, rivalled only by Chinese art. Sculpture, the most highly respected medium for artists, was widely practised throughout the subcontinent and buildings were profusely adorned with it. The subject matter of Indian sculpture was almost invariably abstracted human forms that were portrayed to instruct people in the truths of the Hindu Buddhist or Jain religions. Painting in India typically concerned religious deities and kings and was influenced in style by Persia and other countries from middle and central Asia, as well as Greece. Pictures have varied from the Buddhist frescoes in the Ajanta caves and the Brihadisvara Temple in India, to the large frescoes of Ellora to the miniaturist tradition of Mughal, to the mixed-media embellished works from the Tanjore school. The paintings from Gandhar-Taxila are influenced by Persia to the west, while the eastern style of Indian painting - taking inspiration from Indian mythology, grew up around the Nalanda school of art. India culture is also a rich source of architecture and architectural styles, one of its more minor examples being the famous Taj Mahal.

Standing Parvati,
Sculpture Statue from
the Chola period (880-1279)

Early Indian Art

The art of India begins in the neolithic era of the Stone Age, with petroglyphs which were discovered at Bhimbetka and other locations. These primitive artworks have been dated to as far back as 5,500 BCE. Later, Buddhists were associated with many instances of cave art, which was imitated in the seventh century by Hindus at Badami, Aihole, Ellora, Salsette, Elephanta, Aurangabad and Mamallapuram. In addition, Buddhist literature is full of descriptions about late Iron Age royal palaces in India being decorated with a variety of frescoes and panel paintings but no such works have survived. The best early frescoes to have emerged are those from the Brihadisvara Temple at Chola, and the murals on temple walls in Pundarikapuram, Ettumanoor, Aymanam and Trivandrum.

Shiva as Lord of Dance, Indian
Sculpture From Chola Era.

Sculpture in India

There was an almost complete suppression of individuality in Indian sculpture. This is because the figures are conceived of as shapes that are more perfect than any to be found in human models.

The tradition of Indian sculpture dates from the Indus Valley civilization of 2500-1800 BCE, when small terracotta figurines were produced. This was followed by the great circular stone pillars and carved lions of the Maurya period (c. 250 BCE), and the mature Indian gigurative sculpture of the second and first centuries BCE, in which Hindu and Buddhist themes were already well established. A wide range of sculptural styles subsequently emerged in different parts of India over succeeding centuries, but by about 900 CE India sculpture had reached a form that has lasted with little change up to modern times. This sculpture is distinguished not by a sense of plastic fullness but rather by its linear character: the figure is conceived from the standpoint of its outline, and typically is graceful and slender with supple limbs. From 900 CE onwards, this sculpture was used mainly as architectural decoration with huge numbers of relatively small figures of mediocre quality being produced for this purpose.

Fresco Painting in the Ajanta Caves,
India.

Schools of Painting

There is no one style of painting in India. Geography, climate, local cultural traditions, demographics all help to shape art along regional lines. Also, outside artistic influences are more strongly felt in border regions. Not surprisingly therefore, Indian painting is a complex patchwork of differing styles, with different approaches to both figure drawing and figure painting. Here are a few examples.

Madhubani

Practiced in the Mithila region of Bihar state, India, the origins of Madhubani painting traditionally derive from the time of the Ramayana, when King Janak commissioned artists to portray the marriage of his daughter, Sita, with Sri Rama who was regarded as the incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu.

Lady Playing the Tampura (1735)
Eighteenth Century Painting
From India.

Mughal

Mughal painting is a miniaturist style of Indian painting, typically executed to illustrate texts and manuscripts. It emerged and flourished during the the Mughal Empire in the sixteenth-nineteenth centuries, coinciding with the upsurge in the art of illumination in Persia, which reached its heyday during the Safavid Dynasty (1501-1722). In fact, Mughal pictures were a blend of Indian and Islamic styles. One of the key patrons of Mughal painting was Akbar (1556-1605). At Fatehpur Sikri, he employed the two Persian master painters Abdus Samad and Mir Sayyid Ali, and attracted artists from throughout India and Persia. They painted on cloth using vivid reds, blues and greens, as well more muted Persian colours of pink and peach.

Rajput

Another type of miniature court-style painting, Rajput art flourished during the eighteenth century, in the royal courts of Rajputana. Typically it depicts a variety of themes, including Krishna’s life, epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, as well as landscapes, and people. Colours used were usually extracted from minerals, plants, even conch shells. Brushes used by Rajput artists were typically very fine and tapered.

Mysore

Noted for their elegance, subtle colours, and intricate detail, Mysore painting is an important form of classical art from Southern India. Mysore paintings portray Hindu Gods and Goddesses and scenes from Hindu mythology. The process of making a Mysore painting involves a preliminary sketch of the image which is then covered by a gesso paste made of Zinc oxide and Arabic gum to give a slightly raised effect. Afterwards a thin gold foil is pasted. The rest of the drawing is then pasted using watercolour.

Bengal

An avant garde, nationalist movement which reacted against the dominant academic style of art in India as promoted by both Indian and British art schools, the Bengal School of Art was an influential style of painting that developed in India during the British Raj in the early twentieth century. Its influence waned with the spread of modernist ideas in the 1920s.

Arts And Crafts

As well as painting, sculpture and architecture, India has a rich tradition of crafts including gold-work, silver and other precious metalwork, paper-art, weaving and designing of artifacts such as jewellery and toys. Not surprisingly, this wealth of talent and ingenuity now includes some of the world's most innovative computer software designers.

• For other art styles, movements and periods, see: History of Art.
• For facts about the cultural history of the 32 counties, see: Irish Art: Visual Arts in Ireland

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