South Indian Arts & Crafts - Tanjore Painting.

Radhakrishna. Image source: Ajantha Arts & Crafts

Origin: Thanjavoor, Tamilnadu, India – 16^th century.

From lush green and prosperous Thanjavoor comes a vibrant and rich school of art, renowned for its gorgeous surface embellishments, striking use of vivid colours, tight compositions and breathtaking beauty. Crafted with meticulous care, Tanjore paintings are unique and captivating. The most distinguishing feature is the use of pure gold foils, precious and semi-precious stones, pearls and glass pieces. This form of art uses a combination of skills such as painting, embossing, metal patch work and overlay work. Being a complex, time consuming, laborious and expensive form of art, the rewards for such art is usually handsome.

Primarily depicting Hindu Deities, it is no wonder that the art flourished in an era when dynastic rulers built marvelous temples and patrons promoted classical traditions. The figures in these paintings are large and the faces are round and divine. Nowadays, Tanjore paintings can be seen on the walls of puja rooms and adorning drawing rooms.

The process, in brief: 

Tanjore - Vinayagam

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

♦ A cloth is pasted onto a wooden base.

♦ Chalk powder or zinc oxide is mixed with an adhesive and is applied on the base and smoothened out.

♦ A preliminary sketch is then drawn.

♦ Layers of paste (muk) made from Arabic gum and limestone are moulded and applied on the sketch to create a three-dimensional effect.

♦ Gems of varied hues, are inlaid onto this layer of paste

♦ Non-fading gold leaf is added for the dramatic effect.

♦ Colour dyes are painted on.

Contribution - SY (Team - The Indian Me)