History of Tanjore Painting
In earlier times, the art and paintings were made on the walls of caves, rocks, leaves etc. Since then, the art has seen a major shift and advancements. Different cultures, regions have influenced the painting styles a lot. In phases, foreign inspirations, especially from Roman, Persian, and Chinese Art, were also evident from time to time. Tanjore paintings is one of the major painting styles from the Maratha period which emerged as a unique and colorful style to depict the culture of Thanjavur in 16th century. The Indian Tanjore paintings is a famous art form of the South India which depicts the figures of Indian deities, gods and goddesses like Vishnu-Lakhmi, Shiva -Parvati, Lord Ganesh, and Krishna.
The focus is on the appearance of the god and the eyes of the deities which are made intricately using rich colors. These paintings also illustrate the scenes from the Indian ancient scriptures of Hindu religion. Because of the use of precious stones, ornaments, exotic media like ivory, mirror, mica and rich colors, the tanjore paintings art hold a distinct place in the history of the Indian paintings. Tanjore paintings art can be broadly classified into three categories that are usually made by the artists, namely Antique- These have a comparatively moderate backgrounds and colors with less use of gemstones. Classic- These have a rich and strong colored background and figures. The use of glitter foils and gemstones made them even more attractive. Embossed- These are quite similar to the classic paintings with the effect of emboss. These paintings are super embossed to give a 3-D effect. In the past, real stones and embellishments like emerald, ruby, coral, diamonds, gold foils and leaves were used which are now replaced by semi precious stones and materials, depending on the budget. The artists primarily use the gems of various colors and gold leaves to create a highly durable glow in these paintings. These tanjore paintings are usually made on canvas which is made on a wooden frame with a cloth. But in earlier times, these paintings were made on the temple walls, marbles, stones etc. to give an extravagant appearance to the place. There are many specific colors that are used to depict some particular areas in the painting such as green or red for the background, dark brown for outlining the figures, yellow color to paint the goddesses, blue color to represent sky and so on. In the earlier times, the paintings
were created by the colors which were made from natural ingredients which now have been replaced with the chemically made colors.
The Indian tanjore paintings are purely the divine forms of expression of beauty, elegance and royalty. Till date, thousands of Tamil Nadu artists have kept this form of Indian paintings alive. For their elegance, richness of colors and the use of precious metals and stones, the Tanjore paintings have become a part of Indian as well as overseas art galleries.
Ranjit Tanjore Art is a famous art gallery that is engaged in offering tanjore paintings online sale to the clients. They offer customized paintings which are made as per the choices of the clients.