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Miniature Painting

Miniature elements in modern Indian art

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Miniature is a beautiful step of medieval Indian painting. The paintings that started first on palm leaf books and then ...

Miniature elements in modern Indian art
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Miniature is a beautiful step of medieval Indian painting.

The paintings that started first on palm leaf books and then on paper have colourfulness on one hand and the unparalleled beauty of line flow on the other. There are three stages in the development of Indian miniature painting – first Apabhramsa, second Rajasthani and third Mughal-Pahari.

Here we are considering only from the technical point of view, so there is no question of the subject matter, the artist’s feelings or Hindu-Muslim court patronage etc.

The first form of miniature painting blossomed with all its beauty in the Apabhramsa style.

Miniature elements in modern Indian art

No experiments were done in terms of the power of colours. Most of the paintings were made and flat colours were filled only with the available basic colour materials – ochre, pyodi, gulali, singarph, kajal, indigo, gold, silver and white.

The colourfulness of these is worth seeing. Extremely simplified details and postures in the figures and flat sketching, in which the nervous behavior of the artist is automatically expressed, is another important feature of this art.

The make-believe attitude of this art is quite close to modern art.

The second form of miniature painting appeared in the Rajasthani style. In this, the colour schemes became more elaborate and the influence of folk styles also came.

But compared to the Apabhramsa style, it was refined. Still, its colour schemes have sufficient attraction and the drawing is quite lively.

Compared to the Apabhramsa style, the vigour of its style has decreased. Due to the influence of Mughal art, the practiced fineness has increased a lot in many of its places.

The geometric division of the picture plane is also a major feature of the Rajasthani style.

The technique of the Mughal style was quite laborious. Drawing by holding the breath, artificial measures due to the mental pressure of the Mughal patron on the artist’s mind like fine drawing, creating many forces of colours, analogy, realistic drawing according to natural perspective, etc. were given sufficient attention.

Along with this, the interest of the patron also dominated the development of the art style.

The paintings have been done with such finesse that sometimes it is not visible to the naked eye. The expressions have been shown in a very restrained manner, due to which the freedom of the figures has ended.

In short, the vigour has gone out of Mughal art, the enthusiasm has gone which gives lifelike drawing and vigorous depiction to the figures.

From the technical point of view, the Pahari style also has the same weakness, even if the subjects have become somewhat broader, even if there is some freedom in the postures and gestures, but the light colours and finely balanced drawing here are also similar to the Mughal style.

From the point of view of colours, some critics have placed it in the category of coloured drawings.

During the revival period of modern Indian painting, Havell and Avnibabu were particularly influenced by the Mughal style, although they also had some paintings of Rajput style. With the contact with China and Japan, the Bengal style developed towards soft colours and fine lines, which was also criticized a lot. For those painters, the wishes of their rulers were paramount and the terror of the rulers loomed over their minds. What message could the inspiration of such Mughal art give to India’s freedom struggle?

Nevertheless, some technical features of miniature art are important in many artists of Bengal style such as use of tempera colours, creation of small size paintings on paper, importance of details of figures and objects as per need in painting etc.

The importance of these features is understood more when we see the art schools established by the British government and the efforts made by European artists to promote oil painting on canvas in India and its increasing popularity.

This step of Bengal style artists towards miniature painting was basically in opposition to the western art technique. Bright colour scheme, rhythmic line and geometric division of the picture plane is found in many painters of Bengal style.

After Bengal style, Yamini Ram etc. took inspiration from folk arts and woven their vigour and simplicity in their style. Artists of western India had a wealth of ancient arts of their region. European painters were taking inspiration from the art of the tribals of Mediterranean islands like Africa and Tahiti for the development of their styles. Picasso etc. were developing their styles by combining ancient Greek Roman classical art and African Negro art. In such an era, Indian artists also looked at the ancient sources of their country. They found Rajasthani style and Apabhramsa style more lively than Mughal art and started taking inspiration from these. The Apabhramsa style prevalent in western India was also called Gujarati style, hence in the beginning some painters were also called painters of “Nav Gujarati style”. The stylistic elements of miniature painting, colour brightness, vigorous flat drawing, geometric division of the painting surface and fine marking of details as per requirement, have been accepted as “modern” feeling. Like the Apabhramsha and early Rajasthani style, the painting has been done in flat colours, leaving aside the light and shadow and the art of shaping.

By taking these characteristics as the “modern” feeling found in Indian painting, it has become free from imitation of tradition.

The main artists of this trend are Hussan, Hebar, Samant, Laxman Pai, Ghulam Muhammad Sheikh, Shail Choyal etc., whose art usually has flat colours, lack of shadows, strong drawing, bright colour scheme and tempera medium is predominant.

At some places, the design and ornamentation trend like miniature paintings is also found. Work has been done in oil medium also using this method. Hussan has taken inspiration from miniature painting style, especially in the paintings of Ramayana and Mahabharata. Mohan Samant’s figures and colours are all miniature style.

After drawing, he fills the colours with wash. Charan Sharma, Shail Choyal and Prabha Shah of Rajasthan have depicted architectural backgrounds in miniature style in their paintings in new combinations but they do not have a modern feel.

In Bhupen Khakhar‘s paintings, automatic vehicles (motors, buses, scooters, bicycles), urban buildings and electricity poles etc. have been simplified and depicted like miniature paintings; but he pays more attention to the effect rather than the details of the figures and depicts only the necessary details of the important figures according to the subject of the painting, not all the details. He draws the viewer’s attention towards the central part of the painting by showing more light there. In miniature art, this work was done by colours.

Ghulam Mohammad Sheikh is also another artist of this trend whose paintings are of miniature style; he is also interested in simplifying the figures and depicting only the necessary details.

In the buildings of his paintings painted in oil medium, where the floors have been separated by different colours, linearity has been resorted to in the figurative details.

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