Considering the works of fine art of Asian antiquity, we often come across the names of great masters, especially in the art of China and Japan. However, it is unlikely that many of the art lovers will be able to name the outstanding names of Indian sculptors or artists. Indian visual art is anonymous, and this is one of its most important distinguishing features. And this anonymity is manifested not only in the absence of the names of the authors who created the painting, but often in the partial anonymity of the images themselves. An Indian artist is more likely to create an image of a deity than a specific king or nobleman. Everyday scenes of everyday life included generalized images and cannot claim to be a portrait resemblance, as, indeed, any other image in Indian art.
The Indian master never created his works from life, whether it was an image of a person, a sacred tree or any animal. The Indian master worked from memory, connecting to his work, in addition to direct perception of nature, his own vision, as well as following the canons. The canons develop in detail the rules for depicting postures (asanas) and the positions of the hands and fingers (mudras). Indian works, if they were not images of gods, have always been a subjective reflection of objective reality.
In the images, emotions (race) were of great importance. Eight emotions were considered basic: love, an elevated spiritual state, joy, surprise, sadness as compassion, peace and discontent. All folk stories depicted the joy of being, which manifested itself through emotions - rasa, they were considered a manifestation of Brahman in man.
Each epoch is unique with its special culture. In the same way, the art of India has been constantly changing for many centuries. In this country such as painting, architecture and sculpture developed.
The formation of art in the country of India
The art of India originates from prehistoric rock paintings. In general, the elements are a pure reflection of the mental attitudes of this country, which makes them more introspective. One of them is the idea of yoga about the importance of renunciation of all distracting external influences and fleeting emotions. Therefore, the surrounding reality plays a secondary role in the country of India. The art of India is distinguished by the fact that the focus of iconography is on the religious and metaphysical, even when elements of modern life are borrowed in ornaments, costumes, etc.
Features of the image of the surrounding world
The issue of the environment should be considered in the context of the aesthetics of this country, which does not accept superficial naturalism, realism or illusions. What really matters is the "creation of truth", which suggests India is very simple, because nature itself is created complex and intelligent, and only through signs and symbols has it become possible to express it. That is why symbols play a crucial role here. Simplicity from this point of view does not carry any pejorative meaning, which could be observed in decadent art. It boils down to the development of a number of techniques for expressing the true meaning of objects or objects that the artist and sculptor captured.
Ways of depicting the surrounding reality in art always to a greater or lesser extent reflect the modern views of a particular era. Here we are not talking about perspective, but the techniques and means for conveying ideas to viewers, which differed in different periods of time, from an aesthetic point of view, did not have any advantages over others in the country of India. The art of India is often very symbolic, especially in terms of conveying the nature of things.
Art II century. BC. - 3rd century AD
In ancient art, in the period of the II century. BC. - III in AD, you can find a certain emphasis on Artists such as, for example, Amaravati, tried to object to the surrounding reality. In their search through symbols, they sought to present not only episodes from the life of the Buddha, but also, for example, the worship of Yaksha and trees, which was very common among the people at that time. But not all art was devoted to aspects of everyday life. Artists always strive to emphasize that the external phenomena of nature can only evoke limited feelings. Nature, in their opinion, is rich in deep symbolic meanings. The art of ancient India is rich in traces of cosmology that cannot be understood without reference to ancient Indian literature. Such features can be found up to the 6th century in the paintings of Ajanta and Bagh.
Indian culture VI - X centuries.
As the Gupta era began, new elements began to appear. Artists lost interest in man, but began to show it to the gods and their habitat. And even with this shift in emphasis, they still paid attention to the ordinary, although to a lesser extent. The image of nature has become more stereotypical. In the Vishnu-dharmottara Purana written during this period, one can find a special section on painting, which tells how conventions should be observed. In the following centuries, in art, we can mainly observe only themes dedicated to the gods, and very little - the life that was going on at that time.
Art X - XIV centuries.
After the 10th century, in Indian painting, as well as in Buddhist manuscripts, one can find very few elements of nature and modern life. Ignoring the environment, the artists concentrated exclusively on Buddhist gods, goddesses and Mandalas. Since they had limited space at their disposal, the painters were content with depicting gods and goddesses. This fills the manuscripts they illustrated with magical power, making them the object of admiration for admirers in the country of India. The art of India is very original. The only external influences the artists considered were the beliefs of Tantric Buddhism. They did not care about nature or the social conditions of that period.
Art of India XIV - XVI centuries.
By the end of the 14th century, artists became a little more interested in the themes of the surrounding social life. In their works, one can notice the manifestation of Muslim stereotypes in the depiction of all foreigners who appeared in them. This suggests that they had certain opinions about the Turks, who at that time ruled the northern and western parts of India. In their works, landscapes were depicted as a separate part of the composition, and not just as a background to specific scenes.
The visual arts of India give a much more visual representation of the life of the people than any other literary sources of the time. In the 16th century this interest still persisted. Here for the first time appear, for example, images of specific residents of the countryside, farmers and shepherds, as well as women involved in daily household life. Nature has also become much more widely represented, with full-scale illustrations of forests and wildlife. The art of India began to be filled with new meanings.
Over many centuries, many bright and original trends, schools and trends have arisen, developed, changed or disappeared in Indian art. Indian art, like the art of other peoples, knew not only the paths of internal continuity, but also external influences, and even the invasion of other, foreign artistic cultures, but at all these stages it remains creatively strong and original. Despite the well-known conditionality of religious canons, Indian art carries a great universal, humanistic content.
In a concise essay, it is impossible to cover the history of Indian art in any detail. Therefore, only a brief overview of the most striking and characteristic monuments and the most important lines of development of art and architecture in India from ancient times to the present day will be given here.
The origins of the visual arts and architecture of India date back to the most ancient periods of its history.
In the central regions of the country, murals dating back to the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras depicting hunting scenes and animals have been discovered. The most ancient cultures of Sindh and Balochistan are characterized by small clay sculptures dominated by roughly molded and painted female figurines, usually associated with the cult of the mother goddess, and painted ceramics ornamented with black or red paint. Images of bulls, lions, mountain goats and other animals, as well as trees in combination with geometric motifs, are common in the ornament.
The first flowering of the urban culture of India is represented by the architectural monuments of Harappa (Punjab) and Mohenjo-Daro (Sindh). These monuments testify to the very high for that time development of urban planning and architectural and technical thought of the most ancient Indian builders and their great professional skill. During excavations, the ruins of large urban-type settlements with a very developed layout were found here. In the western part of these cities were heavily fortified citadels with various public buildings. The walls of the citadels were reinforced with projecting rectangular towers. A feature of the appearance of these cities was the almost complete absence of architectural decorations.
The few works of sculpture found in Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa and some other centers of the Indus Valley civilization testify to the further improvement of pictorial techniques and plastic interpretation of the image. The steatite bust of a priest (or king) and a bronze figurine of a dancer from Mohenjo-Daro represent two completely different individualized images, interpreted in a generalized way, but very expressive and vital. Two torsos from Harappa (red and gray limestone) testify to the great understanding of the sculptors of the plasticity of the human body.
Carved steatite seals with images of animals, deities or ritual scenes are distinguished by high perfection of execution. The pictographic inscriptions on these seals have not yet been deciphered.
The architecture and fine arts of the subsequent, so-called Vedic, period are known to us only from written sources. Genuine monuments of this time are almost never discovered. In this era, construction from wood and clay was widely developed, constructive and technical methods were developed, which later formed the basis of stone architecture.
From the beginning of the heyday of the state of Magadha (mid-VI-IV centuries BC), the remains of cyclopean defensive walls and large platforms that served as the foundations of buildings have been preserved. Early Buddhist texts mention statues of gods.
More fully can be judged on the art of the Mauryan Empire (late IV - early II century BC). The royal palace in its capital Pataliputra was compared by ancient sources with the Achaemenid palaces in Susa and Ecbatana.
Excavations revealed the remains of this palace - a vast rectangular hall, the ceiling of which rested on a hundred stone columns.
The flourishing of architecture and sculpture took place during the reign of Ashoka. Under him, the construction of Buddhist religious buildings acquired a special scope.
Characteristic monuments of the time of Ashoka were numerous stone monolithic columns - stambha, on which royal edicts and Buddhist religious texts were carved; their tops had a lotus-shaped capital and were crowned with sculptural images of Buddhist symbols. So, on one of the most famous pillars from Sarnath (about 240 BC), relief figures of a horse, a bull, a lion and an elephant are depicted with amazing skill and expressiveness, and the top of this pillar is crowned with a sculptural image of four half-figures connected with their backs. lions
The most typical monument of Buddhist architecture of this time are stupas - memorial structures designed to store Buddhist relics (tradition ascribes to Ashoka the construction of 84 thousand stupas). In its simplest form, a stupa is a monolithic hemisphere placed on a cylindrical base, crowned with a stone image of an umbrella - a chattra (a symbol of the noble origin of the Buddha) or a spire, under which sacred objects were kept in a small chamber in special reliquaries. A circular detour was often made around the stupa and the whole structure was surrounded by a fence.
A classic example of buildings of this type is the Great Stupa in Sanchi (III century BC), which has a diameter of 32.3 m at the base and 16.5 m in height without a spire. The building is made of brick and lined with stone. Later, in the 1st c. BC e., around it was erected a high stone fence with four gates - torana. The bars of the fence and gates are decorated with reliefs and sculptures based on the plots of Buddhist legends, images of mythological characters, people and animals.
From the end of the 2nd century and especially in the 1st century. BC e. rock architecture is widely developed. The beginning of the construction of cave complexes in Kanheri, Karli, Bhaj, Baga, Ajanta, Ellora and other places dates back to this time. Initially, these were small monastic cloisters, gradually expanding and over the centuries turned into cave cities. In rock architecture, the most important types of Buddhist cult building chaitya and vihara (prayer halls and monasteries) are formed.
The campaigns of the Greeks in India (4th century BC), the formation of the Indo-Greek states, and later, at the turn of our era, the invasion of the Saka tribes and the creation of a powerful Kushan state had a strong impact on Indian art. As a result of the strengthening of India's political, trade and cultural ties with the countries of the Mediterranean, Central Asia and Iran at that time, new artistic trends penetrated into India. Having come into contact with the art of the Hellenized countries of the Near East, Indian artistic culture assimilated some of the achievements of classical art, creatively reworking and rethinking them, but at the same time retaining its originality and originality.
The complex process of creative processing of various external artistic influences in Indian art of this period is especially clearly expressed in the works of the three most important and significant art schools of the 1st-3rd centuries. n. e. - Gandharas, Mathuras and Amaravati.
The art school of Gandhara - an ancient region of northwestern India in the middle reaches of the Indus, in the area of \u200b\u200bmodern Peshawar (now in Pakistan) - apparently arose at the turn of our era, reached its peak in the 2nd-3rd centuries. and existed in its later branches until the VI-VIII centuries. The geographical position on the most important land route that connected India with other countries predetermined the role of this highly developed area from ancient times as a conductor and at the same time a filter of various artistic influences that came to India from the Mediterranean, from the Near East, from Central Asia and China. The influence of the spiritual and artistic culture of India on these countries also penetrated through Gandhara. It was here that deeply contradictory, to some extent eclectic art arose and developed, which received the name “Greco-Buddhist”, “Indo-Greek” or simply “Gandharian” in literature. In terms of its content, this is a Buddhist cult art, which tells in plastic images about the life of Gautama Buddha and many body-satvas. Its Indian fundamental principle manifested itself in a composition following the traditions and canons developed in the Buddhist art of previous periods. In the artistic manner, in the modeling of three-dimensional forms, the interpretation of faces, postures* of clothing, the influence of classical examples of Hellenistic plasticity affected. Gradually, the classical stream is transformed, approaching purely Indian forms, but until the end of the existence of this school, it is clearly traced in her works.
A very important place in the history of Indian art is occupied by the sculptural school of Mathura. Its rise in the Kushan period was marked by a number of artistic achievements that formed the basis for the further development of Indian art. The iconographic canon of the image of the Buddha in the form of a man, created in Mathura, subsequently spread widely in all Buddhist cult art.
The sculpture of Mathura of the time of its heyday (II-III centuries) is distinguished by the fullness of the image of the forms of the human body.
The sculpture of the Amaravati school - the third of the most important art schools of this period - reveals an even more subtle sense of plastic form. This school is represented by numerous reliefs that adorned the stupa at Amaravati. Its heyday belongs to the II-III centuries. The human figures in their proportions are emphatically slender, the genre compositions are even more vital.
The period of existence of the powerful Gupta state (4th-6th centuries) is associated with a new artistic era, which includes the centuries-old development of ancient Indian art. In the art of the Gupta era, the artistic achievements of previous periods and local art schools were concentrated. The “golden age of Indian art”, as the Gupta era is often called, created works that have become part of the treasury of world art.
Reliefs of the gate (torana) of the Great Stupa in Sanchi
A wide and varied construction is represented by numerous temple buildings, both rock and ground. Significantly new in Gupta architecture was the addition of the simplest type of early Brahmin temple: it consisted of a cella standing on an elevated platform, square in plan, covered with flat stone slabs, the entrance to which was made in the form of a columned vestibule, also with a flat ceiling. An example of such a building is the slender and graceful Temple No. 7 in Sanchi. In the future, a covered bypass corridor or gallery appears around the cella building; in the 5th century a ledge tower-like superstructure appears above the cella - a prototype of the future monumental giikhara of medieval Brahmin temples.
Cave architecture at this time is experiencing a new upsurge. A more complex type of rock structures is developing - a vihara, a Buddhist monastery. In plan, the vihara was a vast rectangular columned hall with a sanctuary where an image of the Buddha or a stupa stood. Numerous cells of monks were located on the sides of the hall. The external entrance to such a monastery took the form of a columned portico, richly decorated with sculpture and painting.
One of the highest achievements of the art of the Gupta era was the wall paintings of the cave monasteries. Their creation was preceded by a long development of this genre, starting from the time of the Mauryans, but almost no authentic monuments of early painting have come down to us. Of the monuments of wall painting, the best-preserved murals of Ajanta are the most famous, among which the painting of cave No. 17 stands out for its mastery of execution.
The artists of Ajanta enriched their compositions based on traditional Buddhist legends with an abundance of genre and everyday details, creating a gallery of scenes and images that reflected many aspects of everyday life of that time. The execution of the Ajanta frescoes is distinguished by high skill, freedom and confidence in drawing and composition, and a subtle sense of color. With all the limitations of visual means by a number of canonized techniques, the artists' ignorance of chiaroscuro and the correct perspective, the frescoes of Ajanta amaze with their vitality.
Sculpture of this period is distinguished by fine and elegant modeling, smoothness of forms, calm balance of proportions, gestures and movements. The features of expressiveness and crude strength characteristic of the monuments of Bharhuta, Mathura and Amaravati give way to refined harmony in Gupta art. These features are especially clear in the numerous statues of the Buddha, immersed in a state of serene contemplation. In the Gupta time, the images of the Buddha finally acquire a strictly canonized, frozen appearance. In other sculptures, less connected by iconographic canons, the living feeling and richness of the plastic language are more fully preserved.
At the end of the Gupta period, in the 5th-6th centuries, sculptural compositions were created based on subjects from Brahmin mythology. In these sculptures, features of great expressiveness and dynamism begin to appear again. This was due to the beginning of the process of the so-called Brahmin reaction and the gradual, more and more decisive pushing aside of Buddhism by the Brahmin cults (or rather, by the cults of Hinduism).
At the beginning of the VI century. the Gupta empire fell under the blows of the Hephthalites, or White Huns, who invaded from Central Asia; many centers of art in India are being destroyed, and the life in them is dying out.
A new stage in the history of Indian art dates back to the early Middle Ages and, in its content, is associated almost exclusively with Hinduism.
In the early medieval architecture of India, two major trends stood out, distinguished by the originality of canons and forms. One of them developed in northern India and is commonly referred to in the literature as the northern or Indo-Aryan school. The second developed in the territories south of the river. Narbada and is known under the name of the southern or Dravidian school. These two main trends - North Indian and South Indian - in turn broke up into a number of local art schools.
Whereas South Indian<жая, или дравидийская, архитектурная школа была связана в этот период лишь с областями восточного побережья Индостанского полуострова, южнее р. Кистны (Кришны), северная-индоарийская школа складывалась и развивалась на большей части территории северной Индии, распространившись даже на некоторые области Декана VII-VIII вв. в истории индийского искусства являются переходной эпохой.
At this time, artistic traditions, and in particular the traditions of scalp architecture, are experiencing the final stage of their development and cease. At the same time, there is a process of formation of new artistic canons, forms and techniques related to the needs of the developing feudal society and its ideology.
The role of ground construction is growing sharply. The appearance of such architectural works as monolithic rathas - small temples in Mahabalipuram and the famous Kailasanatha temple in Ellora, speaks of fundamental changes in the architecture of India: these are ground buildings, only made in the traditional technique of rock architecture.
Buddhist rock architecture in Ajanta ends with the creation in the 7th century. several viharas. The most famous is Vihara No. 1, famous for its wall paintings.
From the world-famous wall paintings of this cave, only a small part has come down to us, and then in a badly destroyed state. The surviving fragments depict episodes from the life of the Buddha, as well as numerous genre scenes, which are distinguished by great vitality.
The murals of vihara No. 1, as well as other cave temples of Ajanta, are made in the technique of fresco on white alabaster ground. The visual techniques and means used by the painters who created these paintings bear the stamp of tradition and a certain canonicity; despite the rather strict limitations of visual means, the artists of Ajanta managed to embody in their works a whole world of great human feelings, actions and experiences, creating picturesque masterpieces of truly world significance.
Ajanta painting motifs are widely used to this day in the artistic work of the peoples of India.
However, the traditional cave monasteries, adapted to the needs of a small number of monastic brethren, did not satisfy the needs of the Brahmin cult with its complex symbols and crowded ceremonies. The technical difficulties associated with the processing of hard rocky soil forced the search for new architectural solutions and construction techniques. This search led to the construction
Ellora - one of the famous cave temple complexes in India - is located southwest of Ajanta. Construction began here in the 5th century, when the first Buddhist caves were cut down. The whole complex of temples in Ellora consists of three groups: Buddhist, Brahmin and Jain.
Created in the second half of the 8th century. The Kailasanatha temple represents a drastic rejection of the basic principles of cave architecture. This building is a ground structure, made by traditional techniques, characteristic of rock architecture. Instead of an underground hall going deep into the rock, the builders carved a structural ground temple out of the monolith of the rock, the type of which had already taken shape in its main features by that time. Having separated the desired massif from the mountain with trenches, the architects cut down the temple starting from the upper floors, gradually deepening to the basement. All the rich sculptural decoration was carried out simultaneously with the release of parts of the building from the rock mass. This method required not only a detailed development of the building project in all its parts and their relationships, but also an extremely accurate embodiment of the architect's ideas in the material.
Sculpture plays a dominant role in the decoration of the buildings of the temple complex. Painting is used only in interior decoration. The surviving fragments testify to the strengthening of the features of schematism and conventionality in it. The traditions of monumental painting, closely associated with Buddhism, are dying out. Sculpture is especially developed in Hindu architecture.
The third important monument in the history of Indian medieval architecture is the temple ensemble in Mahabalipuram, located on the east coast south of the city of Madras. Its creation dates back to the middle of the 7th century. The temple complex was carved out of natural outcrops of coastal granite. It consists of ten columned halls carved into the rocks, two of which remained unfinished, and seven ground temples - rathas, carved from granite monoliths. All rathas remained unfinished. The most significant of them is the temple of Dharmaraja Ratha.
The Mahabalipuram temple ensemble includes a remarkable monument of sculpture - the relief "The Ganges Descent to Earth". It is carved on a steep slope of a granite rock and faces east - towards the rising sun. The plot center of the composition is a deep vertical cleft, through which in ancient times water fell from a special pool.
The gods, people and animals depicted in the relief aspire to this waterfall, which vividly personifies the legend of the descent of the heavenly river to earth, and, having reached it, freeze in astonished contemplation of the miracle.
With the outward static character of the statues of gods, people and animals, with great generalization, even some sketchiness in the interpretation of their figures, the huge relief is filled with life and movement.
The next stage in the development of medieval architecture in India was the final transition to construction by means of masonry - stone or brick.
The development of the architecture of the northern regions of India proceeded in somewhat different ways. A peculiar type of temple building developed here, significantly different from the southern type described above.
Within the northern school, several local architectural trends arose, which created a number of original solutions for the external and internal forms of the temple building.
The architecture of northern India is characterized by the location of all parts of the temple building along the main axis, usually running strictly from east to west; the entrance to the temple was located from the east. Compared with the southern ones, the temples of northern India have a more developed and complex layout: in addition to the usual buildings of the sanctuary and the main hall, two more pavilions are often attached to the latter - the so-called dance hall and the hall of offerings. In the external composition of the temple building, its division into parts is usually sharply emphasized. The dominant element of the external appearance of the temple building is the superstructure over the building of the sanctuary - shikhara with its dynamic curvilinear contour; in northern architecture, it first took the form of a taller tower than in the south, square or close to square in plan, the side faces of which rapidly rise upward along a sharply outlined parabola. The upwardly directed shikhara is opposed by the rest of the temple building; all of them are much lower, their cover usually has the form of a gently sloping stepped pyramid.
The rock temple of Kailasanath. 8th century n. e.
Perhaps the most striking finished embodiment of the canons of northern architecture was found in the works of the architectural school of Orissa. This school developed in the ninth century. and lasted until the end of the thirteenth century. The most outstanding architectural monuments of the Orissa school are the extensive temple complex in Bhuvaneshwar, the Jaganath Temple in Puri and the Temple of the Sun in Konark.
The ensemble of Shaivite temples in Bhuvaneshwar consists of a very large number of buildings: the earliest of them were built in the middle of the 8th century, the latest - at the end of the 13th century. The most significant of them. is the temple of Lingaraja (about 1000), which stands out for its monumental forms.
The temple building is located in the middle of a rectangular area surrounded by a high wall. It consists of four parts, located along the main axis from east to west: the hall of offerings, the hall for dancing, the main hall and the sanctuary. The external architectural divisions of the temple building emphasize the independence of each of the parts.
The Temple of the Sun in Konark is considered one of the highest achievements of the architectural school of Orissa in terms of bold design and monumentality of its forms. The construction of the temple was carried out in 1240-1280, but "nv" was completed. The whole complex was a giant solar chariot - a ratha, drawn by seven horses. The temple buildings were placed on a high platform, on the sides of which twenty-four wheels and seven sculptural figures were depicted horses pulling a chariot.
Lingaraja temple tower in Bhuvaneshwar. Orissa, 8th century
Temples in Khajuraho (central India) were created in other architectural forms. The temple complex at Khajuraho was built between 950 and 1050. and consists of Hindu and Jain temples. The Brahmin temples of Khajuraho represent a peculiar phenomenon in the history of Indian architecture: the layout and volume-spatial composition of the temple building here have a number of significant differences from the types of temple structures described above.
Temples in Khajuraho are not surrounded by a high fence, but are raised high above the ground on a massive platform. The temple building was considered here as a single architectural whole, in which all parts are merged into an integral spatial image. Despite the relatively small size of the buildings of this group, they are distinguished by the harmony of their proportions.
Sculpture in the period under consideration is closely connected with architecture and plays a huge role in the decoration of temple buildings. A separate round sculpture is represented by only a few monumental monuments and small bronze sculptures. According to its content, Indian sculpture of the 7th-13th centuries. is exclusively Hindu and is dedicated to the figurative interpretation of religious legends and traditions. Significant changes are also taking place in the interpretation of plastic forms in comparison with the sculpture of previous periods. In the medieval sculpture of India, from the very beginning of its development, features of increased expressiveness appear and more and more spread, the desire to embody in the sculptural image the diverse fantastic aspects characteristic of the Brahmin deities. These features were absent in the sculpture of the Kushan period and the Gupta period.
One of the favorite subjects of Indian sculpture of the time under consideration is the deeds of Shiva and his wife Kali (or Parvati) in their numerous incarnations.
New artistic qualities are already clearly manifested in the monumental relief from the Mahishasura-mandapa (beginning of the 7th century, Mahabalipuram), depicting the struggle of Kali with the demon Mahisha. The whole scene is filled with movement: Kali, sitting on a galloping lion, shoots an arrow at a bull-headed demon, which, crouching on its left leg, tries to evade the blow; next to him are his fleeing and fallen warriors, powerless to withstand the furious onslaught of the goddess.
An example of how a new understanding of the image begins to develop within the framework of the old art form is the relief from the island of Elephanta, depicting Shiva the destroyer. Eight-armed Shiva is depicted in motion, his facial expression is angry: sharply arched eyebrows, a furious look of wide-open eyes, a sharp outline of a half-open mouth expressively characterize the emotional state of the god. And at the same time, the plastic techniques used to make this relief are undoubtedly still closely related to the traditions of classical sculpture of the Gupta era: the same softness of sculpting forms, a somewhat generalized modeling of the face and figure, and poise of movement are preserved. The harmonious combination of all these, to a large extent, contradictory features, allowed the sculptor to create an image of great inner strength.
The artistic qualities of Indian medieval sculpture are most fully developed in the temples of the 10th-13th centuries. Particularly expressive examples are the temple complexes of Bhuvaneshwar and Khajuraho. Here the figures of dancers, musicians, heavenly maidens, who made up the retinue of the gods, were depicted. Over time, these ancient images of Indian art received a much more expressive interpretation, in which the genre-realistic beginning is very strong. South Indian bronze plastic art has artistic and stylistic features characteristic of Indian sculpture as a whole: generalization of the interpretation of three-dimensional forms, the canonical triple bend of the human figure, the combination of dynamics movements with harmonic balance of the composition, subtle transfer of details of clothing and jewelry. A typical example is the numerous figures of Shiva Nataraja (dancing Shiva), images of Parvati, Krishna and other deities, figurines of sacrificial kings and queens of the Chola dynasty.
In the XVII-XVIII centuries. South Indian bronzes are largely losing their artistic qualities.
The main characteristic features and traditions of medieval Brahmin art, considered on the example of the listed monuments, received independent and original development and artistic interpretation in numerous local art schools. Especially for a long time these traditions and canons lived in the extreme south of India, in Vijayanagar.
The formation of large Muslim states in northern India was accompanied by cardinal changes not only in political and socio-economic life, but also in the sphere of culture and art. With the emergence of the Delhi Sultanate, a new large trend in architecture and art began to develop and quickly grow stronger, conventionally called “Indo-Muslim” in literature. The interaction of medieval art schools in northern India
Iran and Central Asia can be traced much earlier. But now the process of interpenetration and interweaving of the artistic traditions of these countries has become especially intense.
From the earliest architectural monuments of the Delhi Sultanate, the ruins of the Kuvwat ul-Islam mosque in Delhi (1193-1300) with its famous Qutub Minar minaret and the cathedral mosque in Ajmir (1210) have come down to us.
The layout of these mosques goes back to the traditional layout of a courtyard or columned mosque. But the overall composition of these buildings testifies to the close, at first rather eclectic interweaving of the architectural traditions of India and Central Asia. This is clearly seen in the example of the mosque in Ajmir. Almost square in plan, the vast courtyard of the mosque is surrounded on three sides by columned porticoes with four rows of columns covered with numerous domes. The prayer hall of the mosque, formed by six rows of columns, opens into the courtyard with a monumental facade cut through by seven keeled arches, the middle of which dominates the rest. But only the skill of Indian architects in the art of masonry made it possible to create such a slender building in proportions.
Of the later monuments, the mausoleum of Giyas ud-din Tughlaq (1320-1325) in the city of Tughlakabad near Delhi should be noted. It belongs to the type of central-domed mausoleums widespread in the Middle East.
The late architecture of the Delhi Sultanate is characterized by massiveness, the well-known heaviness of the general appearance of buildings, the rigor and simplicity of architectural details.
The same features are inherent in the early architecture of the Bahmanid Sultanate in the Deccan. But from the beginning of the 15th century, with the transfer of the capital to Bidar, a lively construction unfolded here and a local peculiar style took shape. More and more clearly there is a tendency to disguise the mass of the building with decorative decoration, in which the main role is played by
polychrome facings and ornamental carvings. The most significant architectural monuments of the Bahmanids are the mausoleums of Ahmed Shah and Ala uddin and the madrassah of Mahmud Gavan in Bidar (mid-15th century).
Goddess Parvati. Bronze, 16th century
An outstanding monument of the pre-Mughal architecture of northern India is the mausoleum of Sher Shah in Sasaram (mid-16th century, Bihar). The massive octahedron of the mausoleum building, covered with a huge hemispherical dome, rises on the shore of the lake on a powerful square plinth, on the corners and sides of which there are large and small domed pavilions. The overall appearance of the building, for all its massiveness, creates the impression of volume and lightness.
Period from the thirteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth century. in the history of Indian architecture is of great importance. At this time, there is a complex process of rethinking and processing architectural forms and techniques that came from Central Asia and Iran, in the spirit of local Indian artistic traditions. In the so-called Indo-Muslim architecture, the plastic, three-dimensional solution of the architectural image continued to be the leading principle.
Busy construction in the Delhi Sultanate and other states of northern India to a large extent created the prerequisites for a new flourishing of architecture and art in the 16th-18th centuries. under the Great Mughals.
Two periods are clearly distinguished in Mughal architecture: an earlier one, associated with the activities of Akbar, and a later one, relating mainly to the reign of Shah Jehan.
The scope of urban construction under Akbar was exceptionally large: new cities were built - Fatehpur Sikri (70s of the 16th century), Allahabad (80-90s) and others. As a result of a large construction, Agra in the 60s, according to contemporaries, became one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
Of the large number of architectural monuments of this time, the most famous are the mausoleum of Humayun (1572) in Delhi and the cathedral mosque in Fatehpur Sikri.
Humayun's Mausoleum is the first building of this type in Mughal architecture. In the center of the park, laid out according to the rules of Central Asian park art, an octagonal building of the mausoleum rises on a wide base, built of red sandstone and finished with white marble. The main white marble dome is surrounded by a number of open domed pavilions.
The architecture of the buildings of Fatehpur Sikri gives examples of the fusion of elements of the Central Asian-Iranian and Indian architecture into a unique and independent architectural style.
The Cathedral Mosque at Fatehpur Sikri is a walled rectangle oriented to the cardinal points. The walls, deaf from the outside, are surrounded on the north, east and south by columned porticos. The western wall is occupied by the building of the mosque. The mausoleums of Sheikh Selim Chishti and Nawab-Islam-Khan stand near the middle of the northern wall, from the south there is the main entrance - the so-called Buland-Darvaza, which is a majestic building in which the features of the monumental style of architecture of the Akbar era were embodied. This building was built in 1602 to commemorate the conquest of Gujarat. The basement is formed by 150 wide stone steps of a huge portal, which was crowned with an openwork gallery with miniature domes and several domed pavilions on the upper platform.
Column made of stainless steel. Delhi
In a later period, relating mainly to the reign of Shah Jehan, the construction of monumental buildings continued. This period includes such monuments as the cathedral mosque in Delhi (1644-1658), the Pearl Mosque (1648-1655) in the same place, numerous palace buildings in Delhi and Agra and the famous Taj Mahal mausoleum. But in the general character of the architecture of this time, there is a departure from the monumental style of Akbar's time and a tendency towards the refinement of architectural forms. The role of the decorative principle is noticeably enhanced. Intimate palace pavilions with exquisite, sophisticated decoration become the predominant type of buildings.
The manifestation of these tendencies can be seen in the example of the mausoleum of Itimad uddoule in Agra (1622-1628). In the center of the park stands a white marble building of the mausoleum. The architect built it in the spirit of the palace pavilions, abandoning the monumental forms traditional for a tomb structure. The lightness and elegance of the forms of the building is emphasized by its exquisite decoration.
Ornament of the Qutb Minar (circa 1200, Delhi)
In the numerous buildings of Shah Jehan in Delhi, the richness and variety of ornamental motifs is striking first of all.
The pinnacle of Mughal architecture is the mausoleum Taj Mahal (completed in 1648) on the banks of the Jamna in Agra, built by Shah Jehan in memory of his wife Mumtaz-i-Mahal. The building, together with the plinth and dome, is made of white marble and stands on a massive red sandstone platform. Its forms are distinguished by exceptional proportionality, balance and softness of their outlines.
The ensemble of the mausoleum is complemented by the buildings of the mosque and the pavilion for meetings, standing on the edges of the platform. In front of the ensemble there is a vast park, the central alleys of which run along a long narrow pool from the entrance portal straight to the mausoleum.
In the second half of the 17th century, with a change in the internal political course under Aurangzeb, the development of architecture in the Mughal state ceased.
In India in the 16th-17th centuries, along with the Mughal, there were a number of local architectural schools that created new solutions to traditional architectural themes.. .
At this time, in Bidar and Bijapur, which for a relatively long time retained independence from the Mughals, a peculiar type of central dome mausoleum was spreading, typical examples of which are the mausoleum of Ali-Barid (XVI century) in Bidar and the mausoleum of Ibrahim II (beginning of the XVII century) in Bijapur.
By the XV-XVIII centuries. include numerous reconstructions of Jain temple ensembles on Mount Girnar, in Shatrunjaya (Gujarat), and on Mount Abu (South Rajasthan). Many of them were built in the 10th-11th centuries, but later reconstructions greatly changed their appearance.
Jain temples were usually located in the center of a vast rectangular courtyard, surrounded by a wall, along the inner 1 perimeter of which there was a row of cells. The temple building itself consisted of a sanctuary, an adjoining hall and a hall of columns. Jain temples are distinguished by their extraordinary richness and variety of sculptural and ornamental decoration.
Mausoleum of the Taj Mahal. Agra
The famous temples on Mount Abu are built entirely of white marble. The most famous temple is Tejpala (XIII century), famous for its interior decoration and especially the sculptural decoration of the ceiling.
In the south of India, the masters of late Brahmin architecture in the 17th - 18th centuries. created a number of outstanding architectural complexes. It is in the southern regions, especially in Vijayanagara, that the artistic traditions of the above-described South Indian or Dravidian school, which successively developed here from the 8th-11th centuries, have been most fully preserved. In the spirit of these traditions, such extensive temple complexes were created as the Jambukeshwara temple near Tiruchirapalli, the Sundareshwara temple in Madurai, the temple in Tanjur, etc. These are entire cities: in the center is the main temple, the building of which is often lost among numerous auxiliary buildings and temples. Several concentric wall contours divide the vast territory occupied by such an ensemble into a number of sections. Usually these complexes are oriented along the cardinal points, with the main axis to the west. High gate towers - gopurams - are erected above the outer walls, dominating the overall appearance of the ensemble. They look like a strongly elongated truncated pyramid, the planes of which are densely covered with sculptures, often painted, and ornamental carvings. Another characteristic element of the late Brahmin architecture is the extensive pools for ablutions and the halls standing on their sides with many hundreds of columns reflected in the water.
In the XVIII-XIX centuries. In India, there was a fairly extensive civil construction. Numerous castles and palaces of feudal princes, a number of significant buildings in many large cities of India belong to this time. But the architecture of this time is limited only to the repetition or search for new combinations and variants of architectural forms already worked out before *, which are now interpreted more and more decoratively.
Temple tower in Madurai
Along with. traditionally Indian, various elements and forms of European architecture are increasingly being used. These features of late Indian architecture determined its peculiar bizarre appearance, characteristic of many cities in India, especially for their new quarters.
In the second half of the XIX - early XX century. a significant number of official buildings are being built according to European models.
The attenuation of the traditions of monumental wall painting noted above did not mean their complete cessation in the art of the peoples of India. These traditions, albeit in a greatly modified form, found their continuation in book miniatures.
The earliest examples of medieval Indian miniatures known to us are the works of the so-called Gujarati school of the 13th-15th centuries. In terms of content, they are almost entirely illustrations of Jain religious books. Initially, miniatures were written, like books, on palm leaves, and from the XIV-XV centuries. - on the paper.
The Gujarati miniature has a number of characteristic features, primarily in the manner of depicting the human figure: the face was depicted in three quarters, and the eyes were drawn in front. The long pointed nose protruded far beyond the contour of the cheek. The chest was depicted as excessively high and rounded. The general proportions of the human figure were markedly squat.
At the court of the Great Moghuls, the so-called Mughal school of miniature developed and reached a high level of perfection, the foundations of which, according to sources, were laid by the representatives of the Herat school, the artists Mir Seyid Ali Tabrizi and Abd al-Samad Mashkhedi. The Mughal miniature reached its heyday in the first half of the 17th century, during the reign of Jehangir, who especially patronized this art.
Departing from the traditions of the classical medieval miniature of Iran and Central Asia, the Mughal miniature in its development came closer than any other schools of oriental miniature to realistic methods of painting. An important role in the formation of the Mughal miniature was also played by the spirit of great interest in the individual and his experiences, which reigned at the Mughal court, and interest in everyday life. Undoubtedly, a large number of portraits and genre compositions are associated with this; it is significant that the Mughal miniature has preserved for us the largest number of names of artists and signed works, which is relatively rare in other schools. Along with expressive portraits, a significant place is occupied by images of palace receptions, festivities and festivities, hunting, etc. In developing these plots, traditional for oriental miniatures, Mughal artists correctly convey perspective, although they build it from an elevated point of view. Mughal masters achieved great perfection in depicting animals, birds and plants. Mansur was an outstanding master of this genre. He draws children with immaculately precise lines, drawing the details of their plumage with the finest strokes and delicate color transitions.
The heyday of the Mughal miniature contributed to the development at the end of the 17th-18th centuries. a number of local schools of painting, when, with the decline of the Mughal state, separate feudal principalities were strengthened. Usually these schools are called the conventionally collective term Rajput miniature. This includes the miniature schools of Rajasthan, Bundelkhand and some neighboring areas.
Miniature of the Mughal school, late 15th century. Reconciliation between Babur and Sultan Amir Mirza near Kokhlin near Samarkand
The favorite plots of the Rajput miniature are episodes from the cycle of legends about Krishna, from Indian epic and mythological literature and poetry. Its distinguishing features are great lyricism and contemplation. Her artistic style is characterized by an underlined contour, a conditional planar interpretation of both the human figure and the surrounding landscape. Color in a Rajput miniature is always local.
In the middle of the XVIII century. the artistic qualities of the Rajput miniature are declining, gradually it is moving closer to the popular popular print.
The colonial period in Indian art history was a time of stagnation and decline for most of the traditional forms of medieval Indian art. At the end of the XVIII-XIX centuries. the features of original bright creativity are most of all preserved in the Indian folk popular print and wall paintings. In terms of their content, wall paintings and lubok were predominantly cult art: numerous Brahmin deities were depicted, episodes from religious legends and traditions, plots taken from ordinary life were less common. They are also close in artistic techniques: they are characterized by bright saturated colors (mainly green, red, brown, blue), a clear strong contour, and a flat interpretation of the form.
One of the significant centers of the Indian popular print was Kalighat near Calcutta, where in the XIX-XX centuries. a peculiar school of the so-called Kalighat lubok took shape, which had a certain impact on the work of some contemporary painters.
In an effort to suppress all manifestations of Indian national culture, the British colonial administration tried to form a stratum of the population in the country, whose representatives, according to the plan of the colonialists, being Indians by origin, would be British in their upbringing, education, morality, way of thinking. The implementation of such a policy was facilitated by various educational institutions for Indians, the programs and the entire teaching system in which were built on English models; a few art schools, in particular the Calcutta Art School, were among such institutions.
At the end of the XVIII-beginning of the XIX century. in India, a specific direction is developing, sometimes called. Anglo-Indian art. It was created by European artists who worked in India and adopted some of the techniques of Indian miniature painting. On the other hand, an important role in the formation of Anglo-Indian art was played by Indian artists, brought up on the traditions of Indian miniatures, but borrowing the techniques of European drawing and painting.
A characteristic representative of this trend was Ravi Varman (80-90s of the XIX century), in whose works the features of sentimentality and sweetness were strong. This direction did not create any significant works and did not leave a noticeable mark in Indian art, but to a certain extent it contributed to a closer acquaintance of Indian artists with the techniques and techniques of European painting and drawing.
The formation of a new, modern fine art in India at the beginning of the 20th century. associated with the names of E. Havell, O. Tagore and N. Boschu.
E. Havell, who headed in 1895-1905. Calcutta Art School, published a number of works on the history of Indian art, its content and artistic and stylistic features.
Indian miniature of the Rajput school, 17th century. God Shiva with his wife Parvaticheniya and the high artistic merit of the ancient and medieval art monuments of India. In artistic and pedagogical practice, E. Havell called for following the traditional forms and methods of Indian fine arts. These ideas of E. Havell turned out to be consonant with the aspirations of the advanced Indian intelligentsia, who were looking for ways of national revival; O. Tagore, one of the most prominent figures in the movement of the so-called Bengal revival, was among the latter.
An outstanding public figure and an outstanding artist, Obonindronath Tagore rallied a significant group of young national intelligentsia around him and created several centers - a kind of university, the main task of which was the practical work of recreating, reviving various branches of Indian artistic culture that had fallen into decay during the colonial enslavement India.
Another major figure in Indian art of the early twentieth century. was the painter Nondolal Boshu, who sought to create a new monumental painting style, based on the traditions of painting cave temples.
N. Boschu and O. Tagore were the founders of the direction known as the Bengali school. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Bengali school played a leading role in the visual arts of India - most of the artists of that time joined it.
N. Boschu, O. Tagore and their followers drew the plots of their works mainly from Indian mythology and history. In their works, very different in manner and style, there was a lot of contradictory. So, O. Tagore in his imitations of the Mughal miniature combined the techniques characteristic of it with the techniques of European and Japanese painting. The work of the artists of the Bengali school as a whole is distinguished by the features of romanticism. But despite a number of weaknesses in their work, its ideological orientation, the desire to revive national painting, the appeal to purely Indian plots and themes, combined with emphasized emotionality and individuality, in an artistic manner, determined the success and popularity of the painting school created by O. Tagore and N. Bosch . Many well-known modern masters of the older generation, such as S. Ukil, D. Roy Chowdhury, B. Sen and others, came out of it, or experienced its strong influence.
A bright and peculiar phenomenon is the work of Amrita Sher-Gil. Having received an art education in Italy and France, the artist, upon returning to India in the late 1920s, took a completely different position compared to the Bengali school, which she denied. The artist's favorite subjects are the everyday life of the Indian peasantry in its various manifestations. Introducing this theme into Indian art, A. Sher-Gil in her works strove to show the plight of ordinary people of India at that time, due to which many of her works are characterized by a touch of tragedy and hopelessness. The artist has developed her own, brightly individual style, characterized by a great generalization of the line and a basically realistic form. Her work, which did not gain popularity during the artist's lifetime, was appreciated only in the post-war years and influenced many contemporary Indian artists.
The conquest of India's independence created the prerequisites for a new upsurge and development of architecture and fine arts, although the secession of Pakistan led to the isolation of significant artistic forces
"Rest" (from a painting by artist Amrita Sher-Gil)
Contemporary artistic life in India is extremely diverse, “complex and contradictory. Numerous currents and schools are intertwined in it, and there is an intense search for ways of further development and improvement. Indian fine arts are now going through a period of acute ideological and artistic struggle; there is a process of folding, formation of a new original national art, inheriting all the best traditions of the centuries-old Indian artistic culture and striving to creatively master and rework the artistic techniques and means of the latest trends in world art.
A current appears in modern Indian architecture, striving to create a new national style by reviving and using the forms and elements of ancient architecture, mainly of the Gupta period / Along with this stylistic trend, the modern architectural school of Corbusier is now extremely widespread in India; Corbusier himself developed the layout and architecture of the buildings of Chandigarh - the new capital of the Eastern Punjab, built a number of public and private buildings in Ahmedabad and other cities. Many young Indian architects are working in the same direction.
In modern Indian fine art, various “ultra-modern”, modernist and abstractionist trends, spiritually akin to the extreme formalist currents of Western European and American bourgeois art, have become widespread. Often, abstractionist tendencies in the work of Indian artists are intertwined with decorative and stylistic techniques. These moments are especially bright in the works of such masters as J. Keith, K. Ara, M. Husain, A. Ahmad and others.
“They go out to sea” (from a painting by artist Hiren Dash)
Another direction in painting is also very widespread, turning in search of ways to revive national art to the famous monuments of ancient and medieval India. Continuing the traditions of the Bengali school, in the cave paintings of Ajanta and Baga, in the Mughal and Rajput miniatures, in the popular popular print, not only the plots and themes of their works, but also new, as yet unexplored pictorial, technical and compositional techniques. Along with symbolic and historical-mythological compositions, they also develop themes from folk life in their paintings. Their artistic manner is characterized by a generalized conventionally decorative interpretation of the form. An expressive example is the work of Jamini Roy, an artist of the older generation and one of the most significant masters of this direction. Working in the early period of creativity in the manner of the Bengali school, he later turns in his searches to popular popular print and develops a clear, smoothly rounded outline, a simple strong form, monumentality and conciseness of the composition, strict coloring, characteristic of his subsequent works. Such prominent artists as M. Day, S. Mukherjee, K. Srinivasalu and others work in the same spirit, but each in his own individual manner. Realistic painting techniques are not alien to them.
“Circle after circle” (from a painting by artist K. K. Hebbar)
Along with the indicated trends in Indian art, a trend is growing and gaining strength, which develops themes from the daily modern life of the peoples of India using realistic means. In the works of artists of this trend, the images of ordinary people of India are reflected with great expressiveness, love and warmth, the features of their life and labor activity are very poetically and vitally truthfully conveyed. These are the picturesque and graphic works: A. Mukherjee ("Pond in the Village"), *S. N. Banerji (“Replanting Rice Seedlings”), B.N. Jija (“The Beauty of Malabar”), B. Sena (“Magic Pond”), X. Dasa (“Going to the Sea”), K.K. Hebbar ("Circle after circle"), A. Bose (portrait of R. Tagore), sculpture by C. Kara (portrait of M. K. Gandhi) and many others."
These main directions far from exhaust the diversity of artistic movements and individual originality of the work of Indian artists. Many masters in their creative search for new ways use a very wide arsenal of visual means and create works in a variety of, often contradictory, manners.
The visual arts in India are now going through a period of vigorous searches in the field of ideological content and artistic form. The key to its successful and fruitful development is the close connection of the leading artists of India with the life and aspirations of the Indian people, “with the movement of mankind towards peace and progress.
In these halls, temple dancers performed ritual dances.
On the territory of the mosque stands the famous stainless steel column dating back to the 4th-5th centuries. n. e. Many Indians believe that they will be lucky if they can wrap their arms around the pillar with their backs to it.
Indian painting
The tradition of painting in the Indian subcontinent is rooted in the distant past. Evidence of the high skill of Indian artists are the frescoes in the caves of Ajanta and Ellora that have survived to this day, Buddhist manuscripts on palm leaves, miniature paintings of the Mughal and Rajput schools, and much more.
Through drawing, Indian classical pictorial art expresses the joy of life, the generosity of its gifts, religious feelings and the triumph of spiritual perfection. A characteristic feature of Indian painting is the absence in it, in contrast to European, of the theme of tragedy.
Indian classical fine arts can be roughly divided into two types: wall paintings (murals) and miniatures. Over time, these types developed into a mixture of different styles that influenced one another. For example, from cave wall painting, Indian temple wall painting subsequently arises.
Cave (rock) frescoes
The history of rock art in the Indian Peninsula dates back to the 2nd millennium BC. e. A striking example of this is the cave frescoes of Bagha, Sittanavasala. The frescoes of Ajanta and Ellora, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, deserve special attention. They are a treasure trove of ancient art.
Ajanta caves(Ajanta), dating back to the 2nd c. BC. - V c. AD, were once the abode of Buddhist monks. Later, abandoned, it is believed, during the heyday of Ellora, they were forgotten until 1819. Discovered by chance by a British hunting party, the caves revealed to the world the highest artistic skill of ancient India. The caves contain many magnificent frescoes painted tempera. The frescoes of Ajanta, restored in the 20s of the 20th century, show stories from the life of the Buddha, as well as royal persons and entourage. Today, the rock art of Ajanta is recognized as a historical heritage and cultural heritage of India.
Ajanta wall painting
Padmapani Bodhisattva (Ajanta)
In the cave temple complex Ellora(Ellora) rock paintings are preserved mainly in the temple of Kailash. Some of them depict the god Vishnu and his wife Lakshmi, others depict heavenly courtesans. apsara, as well as rishis- holy sages.
Frescoes of Ellora
carved into the rock bagh caves(Bagh), located in the state of Madhya Pradesh, are famous for their wall paintings. According to legend, these caves were founded by the Buddhist monk Dataka. The Bagh caves were previously thought to date from the 7th century BC. n. e., but the wall inscriptions found in them indicate that the caves were created in the period from the 4th to the 6th century. AD
In the X century. with the decline of Buddhism, the caves were abandoned, but in 1982 they were restored. The most famous murals of Bagh are made tempera.
Bagh
Frescoes of Bagh
Sittanavasal cave(Sittanavasal/Chithannavasal) is a fine example of medieval Indian rock art located in the state of Tamil Nadu. The cave is a rock-cut Jain temple-monastery known as Arivar Koil dating back to the 7th-9th centuries. n.te. It is notable for its frescoes, which were painted with vegetable and mineral paints on wet plaster applied in a thin layer. On the walls are depicted a beautiful lotus pond, dancing figures of people, animals, birds.
Sittanavasala
Indian miniature
Miniature is a graceful form of painting in the Indian subcontinent. The highlight of this art is the complex and delicate manner of writing. Paints for writing miniatures were traditionally made from natural materials: minerals, plants, precious stones, gold, silver, shellfish. Painting miniature paintings is a very complex, painstaking art, where not a single detail is left without attention.
East Indian School of Miniature Painting
XI
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XII
centuries
Pala School of Painting
The earliest examples of Indian miniatures date back to the reign of the Buddhist Pala empire, which covered the territories of modern Western Europe. Bengal, Bangladesh and Bihar. The Pala miniatures are illustrations of religious Buddhist manuscripts dating back to the 11th-12th centuries. The style of the Pala school is skillful graceful lines, muted tones, skillful modeling of figures, the use of natural colors. This naturalistic style is reminiscent of the perfectly cast forms of bronze sculptures and echoes the frescoes of Ajanta. The Pala school emphasizes the symbolic use of color in paintings, borrowed from Tantrism.
Bodhisattva Maitreya (Pala)
Mamaki (Pala)
Heruka (Pala)
West Indian School of Miniature Painting
XII
-
XVI
centuries
Jain miniature
The West Indian style of miniature painting developed and dominated the territories of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Malwa. One of the driving forces of creativity in this region at that time was Jainism, which was patronized from the middle of the 10th century. until the end of the thirteenth century. rulers of the Chalukya dynasty. A huge amount of religious Jain literature was widely used among the nobility and wealthy merchants of the time. Many of these manuscripts are kept today in Jain book depositories (Bhandara / Bhandara) in many places in Western India. The drawings in these manuscripts are highly stylized and distorted. The emphasis of the Vjain miniature is on the disproportion of the parts of the body, eyes, thighs and chest, on their significant exaggeration. The Jain school of miniature painting emphasizes pure colors, heavy gold outlines, and the minimization of clothing.
Starting from the XV century. the Persian style of fine art begins to influence the West Indian school of painting. This is evidenced by the types of faces in the paintings inherent in Persian painting, the forms of flowering trees, the presence of hunting scenes, grass growing in bunches, skies and clouds. This influence is especially noticeable in the use of ultramarine and gold colors, which prevail in the fine arts of Persia. The earliest examples of Persian painting in India were illustrated manuscripts, many of which were copied and gradually distributed throughout Hindustan.
Bahubali (Jain miniature)
Mughal school of miniature painting
Mughal miniature painting reflects a combination of Indian and Persian styles. As an art, it originated during the reign of the Mughal emperor Humayun (1530-1540; 1555-1556). Returning to India from Persia, where he was in exile, Humayun brought with him two Persian artists who initiated the development of Mughal miniature painting. Over time, Persian painting, having absorbed local traditions, formed its own characteristic style. The main themes of Mughal miniatures are hunting scenes, battle scenes, scenes from court life, moments from legendary stories, natural landscapes, images of animals and portraits.
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Under the patronage of the emperors Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan, the Mughal school of painting is rising to a new stage in its development. During the reign of Akbar the Great (1556-1605) there was a great growth of art workshops. Hundreds of artists worked at the court, following the style founded by two Persian painters who once arrived with Humayun in India. Since Emperor Akbar loved legends and stories, the main themes during this period were scenes from the Mahabharata, Ramayana and Persian epics.
During the reign of Emperor Jahangir (1605-1627) the arts received great support, especially painting. During this period, the manner of writing paintings becomes more refined, the colors are lighter and more muted. Along with portraits, images of animals, birds and nature, the main themes of the paintings are events from the life of Jahangir himself. A striking example is the illustrations for the "Jahangir-name" (autobiographical diary of the emperor).
During the reign of Shah Jahan (1628-1658), sensitivity in paintings was gradually replaced by coldness and severity. The theme of the paintings revolved around musical works, couples in love, holy ascetics.
The trend in the development of painting, noted during the reigns of Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan, gradually began to decline when Emperor Aurangzeb (1658-1707) came to power. By failing to provide adequate support to artists, the emperor marked the beginning of the decline of Mughal painting. And by the middle of the XVIII century. during the reign of Shah Alam II (1759-1806), the art of Mughal painting almost disappeared, leaving behind only one branch known as the Rajput school of painting.
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Rajput school of miniature painting
Since the reign of Aurangzeb, court artists, left without the patronage of the imperial court and their livelihood, were forced to seek refuge in other lands. Gradually moving to Rajasthan, the masters of Mughal painting began to revive the Mughal miniature, but already under the special influence of local fine arts. So in each of the Rajput principalities, their own style was born. However, they all have similar features that have developed since the Mughal court. Over time, the Rajput miniature became more ambitious, moving to the inner walls of palaces and forts. The main themes of Rajput painting are stories from the Mahabharata and Ramayana, local landscapes and everyday life of people, as well as stories from the Bhagavata Purana, Krishna-lila and Ragamala. Paints for painting were obtained by local artists from natural materials.
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Ragamala(lit. “garland of rags (melodies)”) the emotional and musical mood conveyed by the language of the drawing is a classic example of the fusion of painting, poetry and music, embodied in beautiful miniatures. This is a painting based on various Indian musical motifs from ragas. The common theme of the ragamals is love between a man and a woman. Absolutely all ragamals are depicted in specific colors, depending on the time of day or season in which certain ragas are performed. This is done in order to convey the emotions and moods caused by ragas.
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Pahari School of Painting
It is believed that Pahari painting is a reflection of the Rajput miniature, which developed and flourished during the period from the 17th to the 19th centuries. on the lands subject to the Rajput princes (the areas of the modern states of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir).
Pahari painting can be classified within two stylistic schools, namely basoli and gyuler-kangra.
From time immemorial, the province of Jammu has been divided into independent principalities, among which Basoli has always occupied an important place, where the famous center of art arose. Originating in Basoli (Basohli/Basholi), this style of the same name spread widely, gradually transforming into other famous styles of Pahari painting, namely chamba, guler, kulu and mandi. Basoli painting is easily recognizable by its vigorous, bold lines and bright colors (red, mustard, and blue). She is also characterized by geometric designs, glossy enamel, striking faces with high foreheads and expressive lotus-petal eyes, and Mughal-style clothing. The favorite themes of the artists of that time were scenes from Gita Govinda, Bhagavata Purana, as well as Ragamala.
Basoli
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With the gradual disappearance of the bass style in the middle of the 18th century. style appeared in the arena of Indian fine arts kangra or gyuler-kangra, named after the Kangra region where it originated. Developing and gaining popularity, the school of kangra painting masters began to stand out noticeably in the mountainous region. This style originated in the small principality of Guler, located on the territory of the modern Kangra district in Himachal Pradesh. A feature of the Kangra style is the widespread use of shades of green. This style is more than naturalistic, as much attention is paid to the details of the surrounding nature: flowering plants, vines, streams, natural elements. In their works, artists use primary colors, diluting them with delicate, fresh shades. The compositions of many paintings consist of complex landscapes. But the masters of the Kangra style pay special attention to femininity, portraying women as graceful and sophisticated. Inspired by the cult of bhakti that had spread by that time in these places, the artists depicted stories from the Gita Govinda and the Bhagavata Purana in their paintings.
Kangra
Dean School of Painting
The Deccan school, which developed on the territory of the Deccan Plateau from the 16th century, absorbed the traditions of painting of the Malaw Sultanate, as well as the South Indian traditions of the Vijayanagara school of painting. An outstanding example of the painting of the Malaw Sultanate is the illustrated manuscript of the Kalpa Sutra, dated 1439, as well as the treatise on the art of cooking, Nimat Nama.
Illustration for Nimat Nama
The Deccan school of painting is characterized by juicy and bright colors, which puts it in opposition to the schools of the north. The main colors in the decan miniature are blue, red and pink. Symmetry plays a major role here. Figures of people, architectural structures, trees, flowers, pillows, folds in clothes and even the position of various parts of the body are placed on the canvas so that everything is in balance.
Dean miniature
Many of the examples of Deccan painting of the 16th century. sustained in the Persian style, since the local artists were descendants of painters invited to India from Persia. However, over time, the Persian elements were largely replaced by local ones.
Later, when the Mughal style of painting, with the coming to power of Emperor Aurangzeb, began to penetrate the territory of the dean sultanates of Ahmadnagar, Bijapur and Golconda, the dean school was transformed, incorporating its special features.
The most famous example of painting Ahmadnagar(Ahmadnagar) is an illustrated manuscript of the poem Tarif-i-Hussain Shahi in Persian, an annals of the reign of Husain Nizam Shah 1565-1569.
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Painting bijapura(Bijapur) is known for her illustrations for the book "The Stars of the Sciences" (Nujum-al-ulum) with numerous miniatures made in a characteristic Persian style. A distinctive feature of this style is the abundance of golden color and numerous flowering plants, since Persian masters of painting worked at the court of Ali Adil Shah, who ruled from 1558 to 1580.
Golcondian(Golkonda) style is also similar to Persian.
Golconian miniature
The migration of artists from the Mughal state contributed to the emergence of new centers of painting on the Deccan plateau, such as Hyderabad. Hyderabad The (Hyderabad) school of painting began to develop after the establishment of the Asaf Jahi dynasty in 1724. The main characteristics of the Hyderabad style of painting are, like the Deccan, juicy and expressive colors.
Hyderabad miniature
The traditions of the dean's school of painting turned out to be so strong that even despite the decline of the dean's sultanates, they continue to live and delight the eye.
south indian painting
Tanjore painting
Tanjore painting is one of the most popular forms of classical South Indian painting. Dense filling, an abundance of luxury elements, bright colors, as well as the use of inlays with semi-precious stones, pearls and multi-colored glass distinguish the Tanjorian style from other types of painting. Such relief work gives the paintings a three-dimensional effect.
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Tanjorian painting originated in the 11th century. during the reign of the Tamil Chola dynasty. This art was also patronized by the princes of the Nayak dynasty. The fall of the Vijayanagar Empire led to a mass migration of Vijayanagar artists to Tanjore (Thanjavur), which led to a mixture of artistic styles and brought the unique Tanjorian school of painting to a new stage of development. During the reign of the Chola monarchs, early Tanjorian painting was found only in the form of frescoes on the walls of temples and palaces. Later, with the predominance of the influence of the Nayak dynasty, frescoes began to give way to paintings. A striking example of Tanjorian painting of the Chola and Nayak times are the frescoes of the Brihadishwara temple in Thanjavur.
Paintings of the Tanjorian school can be both quite huge and very miniature. The main subjects of the Tanjorian style are images of gods, goddesses, saints, scenes of palace and public life. The central character of the paintings is always drawn in detail. The figures in Tanjorian painting are rounded and quite massive. The classic traditional design was applied with natural dyes to wooden planks known as Palagai Padam (Palagai means wooden plank, Padam - drawing), for which wood was used. jackfruit(Artocarpus heterophyllus) or teak(Tectona grandis). Modern artists use ordinary paints and plywood, on which the canvas is stretched.
Mysore painting
The Mysore style, like the Tanjorian style, is considered a classic form of the South Indian school of painting, which is an offshoot of the Vijayanagara school. It developed in the principality of Mysore (Karnataka), subordinated to the Vijayanagara Empire. Since 1399, Mysore was ruled by the Vadyarov dynasty, which patronized the development of art, in particular painting, which reached its peak during this period. Mysore artists painted the walls and ceilings of temples and palaces with their paintings. A good example of early Mysore painting is the still-active Virupaksha temple at Hampi, dating from the 7th century BC. AD
Fragments of temple painting in Hampi
Similar to the Tanjorian style, Mysore fascinates with its beauty and complexity of execution. Subdued tones, sophistication and the finest detailing of objects are the main characteristics of Mysore painting. The main themes of Mysore painting are images of gods and goddesses, as well as scenes from Hindu and Jain epics. Mysore painting is done on thick paper glued to a wooden board. Previously, natural dyes and gold foil were used to create paintings, but today artists use watercolors instead of natural paints.
In our time, paintings made in the Mysore style are presented by the inhabitants of southern India as a memorable gift.
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Other styles of Indian visual arts
Madhubani
According to legend, painting madhubani(madhubani), or as it is also called Maithili/mithila, originated as an art during the reign of the legendary ruler of the country of Videha, King Janaki. The palace of Janaka, the father of Princess Sita, was in the city of Mithila. For the wedding ceremony of the only, and therefore beloved daughter of Sita and Prince Rama, the king ordered to decorate his palace. Since that time, none of the weddings can do without decorating the inner walls of houses with beautiful paintings.
Initially, the paintings were painted on the inner walls of houses on fresh plaster. The plaster mortar was prepared from earth mixed with cow dung. Painting was done exclusively by women and only on the occasion of the wedding. So wall painting called by the locals Bhitta Chitra(Bhitta Chitra), developed into a cultural tradition honored for centuries.
The subject of Mithil painting revolves around Hindu deities, heavenly bodies, the Sun and Moon, sacred plants, as well as scenes from life associated with all sorts of celebrations, mainly weddings.
This traditional painting has five distinctive styles: Bharni, Kachni, Tantrik, Godna and Gobar (Bharni, Katchni, Tantrik, Godna and Gobar). The first three styles were founded and used by women from the upper class (Brahmins). The main focus of these styles are religious themes depicting gods and goddesses. The other two styles include aspects of everyday life, as well as divine symbolism (without the image of gods and goddesses) and are performed by representatives of the lower classes (sudras).
To create paints, only natural dyes obtained from plants or other natural substances are used. For black, charcoal or soot is used, for white, rice flour. Yellow is obtained from the root of turmeric, blue is obtained from indigo dye. (Indigofera tinctoria)
, red - from hibiscus flowers (kusama / kusam) or red sandalwood, green - from leaves. Paintings are painted either with a brush or sticks, sometimes just with fingers.
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Until 1934, Mithilian painting was inaccessible to the outside world. Only after the strong earthquake of 1934, which shook the state of Bihar, Madhubani paintings became public property.
While inspecting the damage to houses, British officer Wilm G. Archer was stunned and fascinated by the beauty and originality of the images he found that adorned the interior walls of structures. As a result of this discovery, the Mithil fine arts ascended to the next stage of their development. During the drought of 1966-68, which led to famine in the region, with the aim of popularizing Mithil painting, as well as helping the needy population, Mrs. Pupul Jayakar (later head of the All India Crafts Council), recommended subsidizing local craftsman, inviting them to draw their paintings on paper and canvas. Today, Madhubani painting is widely known throughout India, as well as beyond its borders.
Pattachitra
Pattachitra is a traditional folk painting of the people of Orissa. Patta means cloth, chitra means picture. The painting is done on silk or cotton, which is glued to paper. The main themes of pattachitra are scenes from the Bhagavata Purana and the Gaudiya Vaishnava cult. Local craftsmen known as chitrakars(chitrakar), adhere to classical traditions, using natural dyes in their work.
There is also a variety of pattachitra known as tala pattachitra(Tala Pattachitra), i.e. painting on palm leaves.
bengali pata painting
In West Bengal, there is an analogue of pattachitra - this is a traditional painting Pata. Painting is done on cotton, silk or any other fabric. For dyes use only natural material. The plots of the paintings can serve as Hindu religious motifs of the Vaishnava (Vishnuites) persuasion, as well as stories related to Buddhism. Also very popular is the natural theme (animals, marine life and plants).
Kalamkari(kalamkari) is a special technique of painting or stamping on cotton fabric or silk with organic dyes. This type of art came to India from Persia in the Middle Ages. Translated from Farsi kalam is "a pen, a stick for writing", and curry means "craftsmanship". Kalamkari is divided into two styles: Srikalahasti style and Machilipatnam style.
In Srikalahasti Kalamkari(shrikalahasti kalamkari) painting is done by hand using kalam - bamboo or date palm sticks, which are filled with organic dyes. First, the outline of traditional patterns is drawn, and then painted with colored paints. The main themes of this style are stories from the Ramayana, Mahabharata and Puranas, as well as the life of the Buddha. In the old days, colorful panels with images of gods in the Srikalahasti Kalamkari style decorated the walls of temples. Wandering artists put on performances using huge canvases showing stories from Puranas (ancient Indian scriptures) made in this technique.
machilipatnam kalamkari(machilapatnam kalamkari) is painting on fabric using wooden stamps. This style developed during the reign of the Mughals and received special patronage from the Sultanate of Golconda. A distinctive feature of this style are Persian floral motifs.
Various textiles are made using the kalamkari technique, such as wall panels, curtains, bedspreads, pillows, bags, as well as saris and wraps. Today, as many centuries ago, kalamkari is the main source of income for many families in Andhra Pradesh.
Painting of Gond(gond) is a form of Indian folk art practiced by the Gond tribe, once the largest tribal community in Central India. Term gond comes from the Dravidian cond which means "hill". Although Gond painting refers primarily to the tribal art of Madhya Pradesh and its environs, this form of visual art is quite widespread in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chadisgarh and Orissa.
According to the ancient beliefs of the Gond tribe, beautiful images undoubtedly bring good luck and drive away evil spirits. Therefore, the tradition of decorating the walls and floors of dwellings with stylized drawings has survived to this day. Gonds, although they profess Hinduism, remain adherents of animism, therefore their paintings are endowed with reverence for the whole world around them, whether it be mountains, forests or rivers. Some images tell the history of the people, as well as Indian legends and myths. Artists paint their paintings with short strokes and dots. The colors used in Gond painting are bright and vibrant. For paints, only natural dyes are traditionally used, such as charcoal, earth, cow dung, juice of crushed leaves and flowers. Recently, however, paper, ink and acrylic paints have been actively used, which gives the paintings durability. Due to its uniqueness, Gond painting has taken a strong place in the world market. Today, not only wall panels are in demand, but also souvenirs (pens, cups and all sorts of trinkets) painted in this technique.
Painting in the style of Madhubani (which means "honey forest") originated in the small village of Maithili state in India.
Madhubani's paintings are typically characterized by bold colors, traditional geometric designs, fantastical figures with large expressive eyes, and colorful nature. These paintings depict stories from mythology, and the favorite character is the Lord.
The origin and painting of Madhubani or Maithili cannot be traced. Mithila is considered the kingdom of King Janaka, the father of Sita. The art that prevailed at the time of the Ramayana in Mithila may have evolved over the centuries into Maithili art. Centuries-old mural painting in Bihar has played a significant role in the development of this art form.
miniature painting
As the name suggests, miniature painting refers to works that are small in size but rich in detail and expression. Miniature painting in India presents a wide variety of categories, including an abundance of Mughal miniature paintings that depict scenes of court life and contemporary personalities, events and activities from Mughal times.
The main feature of miniature painting is intricate drawings with a thin brush and bright colors made from semi-precious stones, sea shells, gold and silver.
Indian miniatures developed during the period of the Mughal Empire (XVI-XIX centuries) followed the best traditions of Persian miniatures. Although miniature painting developed in the Mughal courts, the style was adopted by the Hindus (Rajputs) and later by the Sikhs. Mughal miniature flourished during the reigns of Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan. There are quite a few paintings that have survived to this day.
Gond painting is a form of tribal art that originated in central India. This art was inspired by the hills, streams and forests where the Gonds lived.
and social customs are depicted by the artists of Gond as a series of dots and dashes, from which forms are intricately folded.
Gond painting was done on walls, ceilings and floors in village houses in honor of customs and festivals. The Gonds also believe that their paintings bring good luck.
The paintings are a combination of earthy tones and vibrant hues that reflect the life in the canvas.
The way Gond painting is done can be traced back to the ancient art of tattooing, which is common among the Gonds.
The paintings reflected folklore and tribal stories sung by itinerant poets and singers. Reflecting history in art was a common practice in India.
The southern state is famous for its Tanjore painting. Being an art form that flourished in Tanjore of yesteryear, this style of painting is still popular and widely recognized today. The paintings are made with inserts of semi-precious stones, glass and gold. They look very pretty and add grandeur to the place they decorate.
The heroes of these paintings are mostly gods and with large round faces and decorated with patterns. This art form flourished from the 16th to the 18th century in Tanjore during the Dynasty, was patronized by princes, Nayak, Naidu, and was considered sacred.
The popularity of this art coincided with the time when majestic temples were built by various rulers and hence the subject matter revolved around the theme of the deity.
This style of painting takes its name from the method of manufacture: kalam means ‘handle’ and ‘kari’ means ‘work’. The artists used exquisite bamboo pens dipped in vegetable dyes.
The drawings consist of thin lines and intricate patterns.
This style of painting was developed at Kalahasti near and Masulipatnam near Hyderabad.
Art of Kalamkari
Kalamkari originated near temples and therefore has a mythological theme. Some Kalamkari paintings reflect traces of Persian influence in motifs and patterns. Kalamkari painting flourished during the reign of the Marathas and developed as a style called Karuppur. It was applied to fabrics made of gold brocade for royal families.
Anjali Nayyar, Indian Gazette
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