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Mural Art:
o Mural art
is basically an artwork made on a wall or a permanent surface. INDIA
has one of the greatest traditions of painting of the ancient
world.
·
History:
o The
history of Indian murals begins in earliest and early medieval times,
from 2nd century BC to 8th - 10th century AD.
o The
earliest surviving mural paintings in the Indian subcontinent are those
of Ajanta. The paintings of Ajanta were made in two
phases and the oldest dated to around the 2nd century B.C. The
wonderful final phase was around the 5th century A.D., under
the patronage of the Vakatakas.
·
Features of Indian Mural Paintings:
o The Mural
Paintings are comparatively different from all other forms of
illustrative art. The two major characteristics which make them
significant are their organic relation to architecture and broad public
importance. The Indian murals are rich in expressive practicality.
o The
utilization of colour, design, and thematic treatment in mural paintings has
the capability to bring about an extreme change in the sensation of spatial
proportions of the building. Mural Paintings are the only form of
artwork which is truly three-dimensional, since it modifies and shares a
given space.
o The
colour materials on the mural paintings were derived from the natural materials
like terracotta, chalk, red ochre and yellow ochre mixed with animal fat.
o The
significant mural paintings are found at Bagh in Madhya Pradesh, caves
of Badami in Karnataka, Sittannavasal in Tamil Nadu and
the Kailashanatha temple in Ellora, Maharashtra of 8th century AD and
known for their linear styles.
·
Different types of Indian Mural Paintings:
o Tempera
Painting: Tempera painting is done by preparation of pigment
into a water-miscible medium.
o Oil
Painting: Oil Painting is a standard of painting in oil colours which
grips suspension of pigments into drying oils.
o Fresco
Painting: Fresco Painting is an ancient practice that engrossed
painting of water-based pigments on recently applied plaster, usually on wall
façade.
·
Other ancient Mural Paintings of India:
o There are
fragments of paintings of the time of Ajanta which survive at many Buddhist
cave sites, including Pitalkhora near Ellora, in Maharashtra.
o Nine
caves were excavated on the slopes of the Vindhya hills above
the Bagh river during the reign of the Guptas, between the 4th and
6th centuries A.D.
o Very
little of the paintings survive in the 6th century Hindu caves of
Badami in Karnataka.
o Expression
to themes relating to Siva in the paintings in the temples of Panamalai
and Kailashanatar in Kancheepuram.
o In the
9th century Jain cave of Sittannavasal in Tamil Nadu, there is
a marvellous lotus pond painted on the ceiling.
o The monastery
of Alchi is an oasis of beauty and colour in the midst of the vast and
barren landscape of Ladakh. One of the masterpieces of the Alchi
paintings is the Green Tara.
o The temple
at Lepakshi was built in the 16th century by the Nayaka brothers, Virupanna
and Viranna, at a centre of trade and pilgrimage in the Vijayanagar empire.