Tradition · gilded panel painting
Thanjāvūr painting
Also known as Tanjore painting, Thanjavur painting, Tanjore
Devotional panels on wood in gesso relief, gold leaf and set glass stones, developed under the Maratha rulers of Thanjavur from the late eighteenth century — a household icon meant to catch lamplight, with the figure raised off the board rather than painted flat.
- Function
- Arts & performance
- Confidence
- Not assessed
- Location
- 10.787, 79.138
Worth knowing
The form is a hybrid of Vijayanagara mural convention, Maratha court taste and Company-period European shading, and it was made for the drawing rooms and puja rooms of a mercantile class rather than for temples. Nearly every Tamil Brahmin and Chettiar house of the nineteenth century had one.
Connections (2)
- Craft tradition ofThanjavur Brihadishvara
Thanjavur painting is a product of the Maratha court that succeeded the Nayakas in the old Chola capital, and it was made for houses rather than for the great temple beside which it grew up. Gesso relief, gold leaf and glass stones give a household icon that works by lamplight, and the style mixes Vijayanagara mural convention with Maratha taste and Company-period European shading — a court art for a merchant clientele.
- Craft tradition ofThanjavur Maratha palace
Thanjavur painting — gesso relief, gold leaf and set glass stones on wood — was developed under the Marathas who took the city from the Nayakas in 1674, on top of the mural tradition the Nayakas had built out of Vijayanagara practice. The panel painting and the wall painting are one lineage in two formats, and the palace holds both along with the Saraswathi Mahal library.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Thanjavur painting”. Geographical Indications Registry (Government of India) filings; Ministry of Textiles and Sangeet Natak Akademi craft documentation.
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