Miniature Paintings - A picture is worth a thousand words…
Artists draw and paint the entire scene in its full grandeur amazing detail and fineness on a small canvas, for the king to keep as a memory of the event. These were the exquisite Miniature paintings of Rajasthan in the 16th Century, the incredibly detailed enchanting visual narratives of royal festivities.
Drawn on paper or sometimes ivory,
the miniatures were painted with extremely fine brushes made by inserting just a few strands of squirrels’ tail hair into bird feathers. It is not just the final act of painting, which required excellence.
preparation of the colours was another effort requiring patience and perseverance.
The colours were all derived from nature and many days of toil would result in extraction of a miniscule amount of rich, exquisite colour.
Miniature Paintings natural colour:
The colour red was extracted from the dried fruit of Peepal tree
orange from Palash flower
The colour yellow had a fascinating process of extraction.
It was derived from the dried up urine of a sick cow.
Gold or silver colours were obtained by boiling the metal with “Saras” (Camel musk) and water.
It would be rubbed on a plate and ground by hand for 2-3 days to get a miniscule amount of very fine, precious concoction.
The colour would be mixed with water and natural gum (RICE WATER )to prepare it for application. It had to be made sure that the colour is extremely fine and uniform because the painting was so small, that even a tiny lump out of place would spoil it. Therefore, sometimes months were spent only in grinding the colour into a smooth paste, making sure the consistency is absolutely even.
Today, even though synthetic paints and readymade brushes are used frequently, the painting style remains the same. The craftsmen sometimes still use natural colours for painting, although their extraction process is much faster and more efficient. Marble is used as a substitute for ivory, and only the highly experienced master craftsmen use marble as a base. The rest use paper or silk, which they sometimes dip in tea water to give a sepia tinge.
miniature-paintings:The paintings are small in size, but they are extremely detailed and elaborate and this requires a high degree of skill and experience. In the intricate design, there is no way to hide even a small brushstroke gone wrong.
Recording history through artistic expressions has been a part of human nature, from the cave paintings of the Stone Age, depicting hunting and dancing scenes to digitally created prints in thousands of colours.
Today,technology is making us immune to the marvelous skill of hands that create delicate beauty. Sometimes, we fail to appreciate the amount of hard work and focus that the artists have to put in and how much practice and concentration is required for continuance of this medieval art.
The craftsmen and their Miniature paintings prove just that sometimes a palm sized masterpiece can be many times more valuable than a grand scale work of art.
Rajput painting, also known as Rajasthani Painting, is a style of Indian painting, evolved and flourished in the royal courts of Rajputana, India. Each Rajput kingdom evolved a distinct style, but with certain common features. Rajput paintings depict a number of themes, events of epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, Krishna’s life, beautiful landscapes, and humans. Miniatures in manuscripts or single sheets to be kept in albums were the preferred medium of Rajput painting, but many paintings were done on the walls of palaces, inner chambers of the forts, havelis, particularly, the havelis of Shekhawati, the forts and palaces built by Shekhawat Rajputs.
The colours were extracted from certain minerals, plant sources, conch shells, and were even derived by processing precious stones. Gold and silver were used. The preparation of desired colours was a lengthy process, sometimes taking weeks. Brushes used were very fine.
Miniature art is fine art. Miniature art is a specialty art, not a novelty art. Through the ages it has been considered an art form. Miniature art is most often extremely detailed work, exquisite in color with a strength of composition which can more than compete with larger paintings.
A miniature usually takes as long or longer to produce as a large piece of art. A fine miniature can be magnified many times and it will still hold together as a fine work of art of much greater size. we, Ashoka arts provide one of the most miniature art in udaipur.