Indian Art

Before Indian Art and every phase of Indian civilization, we stand in wonder at its age and its continuity. The ruins of Mohenjo-Daro are not all utilization; among them are limestone bearded men, terra-cotta figures of women and animals, beads and other ornaments of carnelian, and jewelry of firmly polished gold. One seal shows in bas-relief a bull so vigorously and incisively drawn that the observer almost leaps to the conclusion that art does not progress, but only changes in form.

Painting

The earliest datable Indian painting is a group of Buddhist frescoes (100 B.C.) (Fresco painting is done upon freshly laid plaster before it dries). In 1819, Europeans stumbled upon the ruins of the old temples and were amazed to find on the walls frescoes that are now ranked among the masterpiece of the world’s art.

The temples have been called caves, for in most cases; they are cut into the mountains. These caves had walls covered with frescoes. One cannot but admire the nobility of the subject, the majestic scope of the plan, the unity of the composition, the simplicity and decisiveness of the line in these paintings, particularly, the perfection of the hands.

At Ajanta, religious devotion fused architecture, sculpture and painting into a happy unity, and produced one of the sovereign monuments of Hindu art.

When their temples were closed or destroyed by the Huns and Moslems, the Hindus turned their pictorial skill to a recording of the episodes of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana in delicate miniatures.

The Ajanta Caves carved out of volcanic rock in the Maharashtra Plateau was not far off from the ancient trade routes & attracted traders & pilgrims through whom the Ajanta art style diffused as far as China & Japan. The Buddhist Monks employed artists who turned the stone walls into picture books of Buddha's life & teachings. These artists have portrayed the costumes, ornaments & styles of the court life of their times. 

The artists applied mud plaster in two coats - the first was rough to fill in the pores of the rocks & then a final coat of lime plaster over it. The painting was done in stages. They drew the outline in red ochre, then applied the colours & renewed the contours in brown, deep red or black.

Hindu paintings were rarely drawn from models; the artist visualized them out of imagination and memory.

The Mogul painters and those from the Rajput school strove for delicacy of line, sometimes using a brush made from a single hair; and they too rivaled one another in the skillful portrayal of the hand. They seldom touched religion or methodology; they confined themselves to the earth, and were very realistic.

The Sandanga, or “Six Limbs of Indian Painting”, laid down six canons of excellence in pictorial art:

1. The knowledge of appearances2. Correct perception, measure and structure3. The action of feelings on forms4. The infusion of grace, or artistic representation5. Similitude6. An artistic use of brush and colors

Later, an aesthetic code appeared, the Shilpa-shastra, in which the rules and traditions of each art were formulated for all time. The artist should be:

1. Learned in the Vedas2. Delighting in the worship of God3. Faithful to his wife4. Avoiding strange women5. Piously acquiring knowledge of various sciences.

To understand Oriental painting, we remember that:

1. It seeks to represent, not things, but feelings.2. It does not represent, but suggests.3. It depends not on color, but on lines.4. It aims to create aesthetic and religious emotion rather that to reproduce reality.5. It is interested in the “soul” or “spirit” of men” and things, rather than in their material forms.

One cannot but notice the fluid, yet firm lines, long sweeping brush strokes, outlining graceful contours, subtle gradation of the same colour, highlighting nose, eyelids, lips & chin making the figures emerge from the flat wall surface. Animals, birds, trees, flowers, architecture are pictured with an eye to their beauty of form. Human emotions & character

are depicted with great understanding & skill - indignation, greed, love & compassion. 

Architecture & Sculpture

The caves at Ajanta, besides being the hiding-place of the greatest of Buddhist paintings, rank with karl as examples of composite art, half architecture and half sculpture, which characterizes the temples of India.

Ajanta can hardly be refused the title of one of the major works in the history of art.

Three elements composed the structural plan of the southern temples: the gateway, the pillared porch, and the tower (vimana), which contained the main assembly hail or cell.

Another architectural marvel is the tomb built by Shah Jehan, the captive emperor, built for his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj Mahal was completely Mohammedan. For 22 years, 22,000

workmen were forced to labor on it. Although the Mahrajah of Jaipus sent the marble as a gift to Shah Jehan, The building and its surrounding cost $230,000,000.00.

The Taj Mahal is considered as the most beautiful of all edifices, framed on either side by hand come mosques and stately minarets. In the foreground, spacious gardens enclose a pool. Every portion is of white marble, precious metals or costly stones. The main entrance, once guarded with solid silver gates, jeweled script from the Koran, one of which invites the “pure in heart” to enter “the gardens of Paradise”. The tomb had superabundant jewels, a golden railing encrusted with precious stones. The railing was replaced with an octagonal screen of almost transparent marble, carved into a miracle of alabaster lace – unsurpassed in beauty, pleasing in its perfection. In our time, we can say that the old civilization of India is finished. It began to die when the British came.

Egyptian Art

Egypt consist of a narrow strip of fertile, alluvial soil along both banks of the Nile, flanked by shelves of barren land and rugged cliffs, beyond which lie arid, desert plateau. The Nile was a trade route to Eastern and Western foreign trade and because of its overflowing and fertilizing waters, it made dessert sand into productive fields. The villages and cemeteries can be found along the river banks.

Craftsmanship was highly developed, particularly in the royal workshops. The Egyptians attained great skill in weaving, glass blowing, pottery-turning, metal weaving, and in making musical instruments, jewelry and furniture. The Kings of ancient Egypt were known as pharaohs. The religious rites were traditional, virtually unchangeable, and mysterious, and those traits were evident in their art, both in temples and tomb. The religion was monotheistic in theory, but polytheistic in practice, though the cult of many gods representing natural phenomena and the heavenly bodies, such as the sun, moon, stars, and by the worship of animals as personification of gods.

Symbolism

Symbolism also played an important role in establishing a sense of order. Symbolism, ranging from the pharaoh's regalia (symbolizing his power to maintain order) to the individual symbols of Egyptian gods and goddesses, is omnipresent in Egyptian art. Animals were usually also highly symbolic figures in Egyptian art. Colors were more expressive rather than natural: red skin implied vigorous tanned youth, whereas yellow skin was used for women or middle-aged men who worked indoors; blue or gold indicated divinity because of its unnatural appearance and association with precious materials; the use of black for royal figures expressed the fertility of the Nile from which Egypt was born. Stereotypes were employed to indicate the geographical origins of foreigners.

Paintings

Many ancient Egyptian paintings have survived due to Egypt's extremely dry climate. The paintings were often made with the intent of making a pleasant afterlife for the deceased. The themes included journey through the afterworld or protective deities introducing the deceased to the gods of the underworld

(such as Osiris). Some tomb paintings show activities that the deceased were involved in when they were alive and wished to carry on doing for eternity.

In the New Kingdom and later, the Book of the Dead was buried with the entombed person. It was considered important for an introduction to the afterlife.

Egyptian paintings are painted in such a way to show a profile view and a side view of the animal or person. For example, the painting to the right shows the head from a profile view and the body from a frontal view. Their main colors were red, blue, black, gold, and green

Egyptian tomb architecture

The mastaba is an ancient Egyptian rectangular, blat-toped funerary mound, with battered (sloping) sides, covering a burial chamber below ground. Since the ancient Egyptians believed so strongly in an afterlife, they did their utmost, each according to his means, to build lasting tombs, to preserved the body, and to bury with it the finest commodities that might be needed for the sustenance and eternal enjoyment of the deceased. As early as the first Dynasty, bands of linen were used to wrap around the body to aid its preservation.

Obelisks

These are tapering four-sided shafts of stone in ancient Egypt which originated in the scred symbol of the son-god Hellopolis and which usually stood in pairs astride temple entrances. They have a height of nine or ten times, the diameter at the base, and the four sides are cut with hieroglyphics.

The Great temple of Abu-simbel

It is one of the rock-hewn temples. An entrance forecourt lead to the imposing façade. Which has four colossal rock-cut statues of Rameses II.

The greatest element in this civilization was its art-powerful and mature, superior to that of any modern nation, and equaled only by that of Greece. At first, the luxury of isolation and peace, and then, under Thutmose III and Rameses II, the spoils of oppression and war, gave to Egypt the opportunity and means for massive architecture, masculine statuary, and a hundred minor arts that so early touched perfection.

Stone for building was not used for homes; they were reserved for temples. From the Pyramids to the Temple of Hathor at Denderah, for some three thousand years, there rose out of the sands of Egypt such a succession of architectural achievements as no civilization has ever surpassed. Here are the decorative designs, papyriform columns, lotiform columns, “proto – Poric” colums, Caryatid colums, Hathor cappitals, palm capitals, clerestories, and magnificent architraves full of the strength and stability – all these make Egyptians the greatest builders in history.

Amid lofty masterpieces in sculptures, humor continues to find its place. Egyptian sculptures make jolly caricatures of men and animals, and even kings and queens are made to smile and play.

Sculpture

The ancient art of Egyptian sculpture evolved to represent the ancient Egyptian gods, Pharaohs, and the kings and queens, in physical form. Whether there was real portraiture in Ancient Egypt or not is still debated. Massive statues were built to represent gods and famous kings and queens. These statues were supposed to give eternal life to the kings and queens, and to enable the subjects to see them in physical forms.

Very strict conventions were followed while crafting statues: male statues were darker than the female ones; in seated statues, hands were required to be placed on knees and specific rules governed appearance of every Egyptian god. For example, the sky god (Horus) was essentially to be represented with a falcon’s head, the god of funeral rites (Anubis) was to be always shown with a jackal’s head. Artistic works were ranked according to their compliance with these conventions, and the conventions were followed so strictly that, over three thousand years, the appearance of statues changed very little. These conventions were intended to convey the timeless and non-aging quality of the figure's ka.

Architecture and sculpture are the major Egyptian arts, but bas – relief was abundant. The people tirelessly carved their history on walls.