Eighty-eight Tanjore paintings are displayed at the gallery in National Museum, which will soon have trained guides, says Divya Kaushik
Silence engulfed the National Museum’s recently-renovated gallery which hosts splendid Tanjore and Mysore art. The only audible sound was a pen dropping from a visitor’s hands.
located on the first floor, the place opened its door to general visitors on May 3.
The 88 works displayed, are part of a vast collection and were worked upon by the Museum’s conservationists.
They contain the sheen of gold patra (sheet) and the dazzle of kundan with other stones.
“The gallery was renovated with lED lights and panels. We also paid attention to captioning. Most galleries only tend to give a single line, with no description about technique to visitors, particularly foreigners. The description is given in Hindi and English, to inform people know about the tradition and culture of ancient Tanjore painting. Every change keeps in mind the recommendations by Venu V, director general of the Museum,” said Vijay Mathur, curator, education and paintings.
The themes of Tanjore paintings are divided in three categories: devotion to Vaishnavism, images of Krishna, Rama, Vishnu and other incarnations, laksmi and other Vaishnava Gods and saints. A section on Shaivism, portraits of Shiva, Parvati, Kartikeya, Ganesha and other Shaivite deities. The third features portraits of kings.
A peculiar feature of one painting is that nobles wear British style turbans. This depicts how Maratha rulers converted traditional turbans into British headgear. Noble heads are aligned perfectly.
Navneet Krishna or paintings depicting stages from lord Krishna’s life form an important section of the exhibit. “Apart from the use of gold and silver foil, precious and semi-precious stones, beads, mirrors and powdered metal (particularly gold), there is use of red, green, blue, black and white to depict the Gods. Infant Krishna is seen in pink with a marble like translucence. lord Vishnu and his incarnations are depicted with a distinct, green body tone,” said Mathur.
The exhibition also includes two lithographs and three sketches explaining stages and techniques of making Tanjore paintings. “The Mysore School sprang in South Karnataka during the reign of Maharaja Mummudi Krishnaraja Wodiyar. Under his patronage, older artistic traditions of the region like music, dance, literature and paintings were revived. Most surviving traditional paintings can also be ascribed to this period,” shared Mathur. He added that Tanjore paintings have so much of history and tradition that they plan to include trained guides who will take the visitors around.
“We received around 450 requests. You will be surprised to learn these were from housewives, corporates, working professionals and students. People interested in art and history are enthusiastically coming forward to join the process. We already trained a batch of 30-35 individuals. They were given lectures by experts, notes and script. We intend to involve more people,” ended Mathur.
The exhibition is open to general public from 10 am-5 pm. The gallery is closed on Monday.