Tanjore paintings bear the name of the city of Tanjore or Thanjavur in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is an art that dates back to 16^th century and the Nayakas who ruled over the place at that time patronized this art form. The themes of these paintings are gods and goddesses of Hindu mythology and what makes these paintings unique is the use of precious and semi precious materials in them. Many dynasties like Nayakas, Cholas, Marathas and Rajus promoted Tanjore paintings. Tanjore has its own rich and varied heritage that it is not only famous for these paintings but also for other items like Tanjore plates and Tanjore dolls.

The Rajus from Trichy and Tanjore and Naidus from Madurai were the important communities that back the art. The precious and semi precious stones, pieces of glass and even gold are used in the artwork. They are made of vibrant colors to look fine. The deities of Tanjore paintings have a rounded body with big face and almond shaped eyes. The gold leaves and other sparkling materials are used to highlight the features. Even in a dark room this painting will glow. The paintings of the earlier times even had diamonds and rubies studded on them. Some of these precious paintings could be seen in the Saraswathi Mahal Library in Tanjore.

The Tanjore paintings are made on canvas which is usually a piece of wood. In bygone days, the wood of Jackfruit was used but now plywood is used instead and above this wood, canvas cloth is pasted with gum and coated with the paste of limestone and binding medium to get the surface ready for painting. The sketching of outline is done to begin the work. These paintings are three dimensional and to get that limestone paste and a binding medium is put to use. For highlighting certain important features of paintings such as the dress, pillars, thrones, etc, gold leaves and precious stones are used.

In olden days, the artists used natural colors made out of vegetable dyes to make the Tanjore paintings. However at present, the chemical paints are used and these paints help to get the expected sharpness. The contrasting colors with bright background usually brown or red is used. Traditionally red color is used for background and many people think that the Tanjore paintings with red background look perfect. Occasionally green is also used. Lord Vishnu is painted in blue and Lord Nataraja in chalk white. For goddesses, yellow is usually used. The process of embossing and bejeweling makes this quite expensive.

The three types of paintings that are usually made are classic paintings, antique style paintings and embossed type. In the first type, bold and contrasting colored are used with gold foil. However in the antique style the glitter of gold is not exposed and they are more sober with subtle color combinations. The third style is similar to the first style but with one difference of embossing the figure to get more depth. The Tanjore paintings are considered to be status symbols and rich people like to display them in their houses. If preserved well, they will last for generations. They are considered as collectibles and so as the years pass by their value will appreciate.

Article Posted By : Sumazla  On January 23, 2012lView All Articles

Suhaina Mazhar is a freelance content writer and blogger and has written thousands of original articles. http://sumazla.blogspot.com is her blog.

Article Source :

http://www.veethi.com/articles/tanjore-paintings-article-435.htm

Keywords :
Tanjore paintings , Tanjore art , Tanjore painting