Thanjavur Painting

Thanjavur (Tanjore) Paintings are one of the India’s greatest ancient traditional art forms. The common theme running through these paintings is mythology which demonstrates that spirituality is the essence of creative work. The canvas for a Thanjavur painting is usually made out of a plank of wood of the jackfruit tree. These paintings are of 3 types – wall paintings. paintings on glass and miniature paintings. Thanjavur paintings are the only one of its kind in the world where laborious human skill is involved with little use of a paintbrush. No two paintings look alike. It is the one of the few art forms that exists today, which employs precious stones and golden flakes extensively for creating figures with static expressions.The depiction/description of the main figures are with rounded bodies and almond shaped eyes, lighter colour, ornamental jewellery and ornate dresses in the form of precious stones and glass pieces and such others embedded on them; while the other supporting figures are all miniscule.The embellishments made over the basic drawings with precious and semi-precious stones as well as the relief work at times give a 3D effect on a two dimensional medium.The compositions are highly stylised.