Tanjore Painting

History of Tanjore Painting
Tracing its roots to the historical golden era of the early 18th century, Tanjore artwork is one of the many indigenous art forms for which India is noted. Originating in Tanjore about 300 kms from Chennai( Madras), which was the then capital of the Gupta empire, this form of art developed at the height of cultural evolvement achieved during that period.

An extraordinary visual amalgamation of both art and craft, Tanjore paintings mainly consist of themes on Hindu gods and goddesses. The characteristics of the Tanjore paintings are its brilliant colour schemes, decorative jewellery with stones and cut glasses and its larger-than-life figures. The themes are mostly mythological, with figures of Lord Krishna in various poses and depicting various stages of his life being the most favourite. Today people are experimenting with birds, animals, building structures and other subjects.

Crafted with meticulous care the Thanjavoor (Tanjore) pictures are unique. What sets them apart from Indian paintings in general are the embellishments made over the basic drawings with precious and semi-precious stones as well as the relief work which gives them a three dimensional effect. The pictures are of various sizes, ranging from huge works spanning whole walls to small miniatures no longer than 6-inch square.

The paintings decorate the puja rooms in residences, orcades in major hotels and lobbies in Corporate Offices. They also make nice gifts for Diwali, Weddings and other special occasions.

Art of Creating Tanjore Paintings
These paintings are remarkable in its step-by-step creation from the actual canvas board to the final touches. Adorned with rubies, diamonds and other precious gemstones, and trimmed with gold foil, Tanjore paintings were actually speaking-- treasures. Nowadays, however semi precious stones are used in place of real ones, but the use of gold foil has not altered.

The 'canvas' for a Tanjore painting is usually a plank of wood over which a layer of cloth is pasted. The cloth is coated with lime paste and smoothened by rubbing with a smooth stone till the overlay is smooth, levelled and even. Now, the canvas is ready for painting.

On this canvas, the artist draws a detailed pencil-sketch.

Layers of paste made from glue (obtained from neem trees) and limestone are moulded and applied on the canvas to create a three-dimensional effect in embellishing and ornamentating a theme.

Selected gems of varies hues, are inlaid onto this layer of paste. Gold leaves are affixed on selected areas. The shine and glean on the gold leaves used by the tanjore style paintings, will last forever.