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Decline and Rebirth of Medieval Indian Art: Western Indian Painting
| Title: | Decline and Rebirth of Medieval Indian Art: Western Indian Painting | | Author: | Goetz, Hermann | | Publication: | Marg | | Enumeration: | Vol. 4 Issue no. 2, p. 36-48 | | Abstract: | This is a review article of Moti Chandra's book "Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India". It outlines the development of Jaina painting: its early (pre-Mughal) phase which follows sculpture-styles on Chalukya (Solanki) temple in Gujarat and southern Rajputana; end of the comparatively free and vivid phase of Gujarati Jaina art in the last quarter of the 13th century with the decline of the Vaghelas; revival in the middle of the 15th century along with pre Muslim art in Rajputana; and transition from Jaina to Rajput painting in the 16th century. The parallelism between Jaina paintings and the murals of Pagan in Burma is interpreted as the result of a similar art-cum-sociological situation, and not indicative of a relation between them (as Moti Chandra writes). In contrast to contemporary sculptures, Jaina pictures are angular, crude, and flat. Three explanations are considered: a puritan prejudice against painting among the Jaina community; the preserved manuscripts and book covers are works of only a modest middle-class art; 17th-century Lama Taranatha's definition, which makes it clear that the Western Indian School was less accomplished than Eastern art. However, it is postulated that sculpture developed earlier than painting in the civilization of the time, and evolution of painting was further retarded by Muslim invasions, and had to restart in the 16th century. Most of the Western Indian School paintings known to us were executed for the Jaina community. The miniature styles of Persia in the Mongol period, and later (between 1440-75) the Muslim art of Gujarat, Malwa, and Uttar Pradesh were influences. The transitional Jaina Rajput style of the late 16th century can be accepted as evidence not the for evolution of Rajput painting but for the intrusion of Rajput pictorial style is traced back to at least the last quarter of the 16th century. Source of Abstract: Provided by Publisher | | Tools: |
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