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DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS

  • 05 January, 2023

  • 6 Min Read

Mural Art

Mural Art

  • In Kerala, The Wall of Peace, a magnificent piece of contemporary mural art, was unveiled on the 700-foot-long compound wall of the Government Vocational Higher Secondary School at Cherpulassery.
  • On the wall, the word "peace" has been imprinted in 250 different languages.

Regarding Mural Painting:

  • Indian mural paintings are created on the cave and palace walls.
  • Any piece of art that is painted or put directly on a wall is referred to as a mural.
  • In a broader sense, mural art can be found on walls, ceilings, or any other substantial permanent surface.
  • The distinctive feature of mural paintings is typically the seamless integration of the architectural features of the space they are painted on.
  • The fresco is merely one of the numerous mural painting techniques.
  • The stunning frescoes painted on the caverns of Ajanta and Ellora, the Bagh caves, and Sittanvasal cave are the earliest examples of murals.
  • One of the oldest painting traditions in the world is found in INDIA.
  • Indian murals have a history that spans from the second century BC to the eighth to tenth centuries AD.
  • The murals from Ajanta are the earliest ones still in existence on the Indian subcontinent. The Ajanta paintings were created in two stages, with the earliest dating to roughly the second century B.C. Around the fifth century A.D., the magnificent final phase took place with the Vakatakas as its patrons.
  • The renowned courtesan of Vaishali, Amrapali, hired painters to portray the monarchs, tradesmen, and merchants of the era on the walls of her palace, according to Vinaya Pitaka.

Characteristics of Indian Murals:

  • The Vishnudharamotaram, a Sanskrit work from the fifth and sixth centuries CE, discusses the method and steps involved in creating Indian wall paintings.
  • With the exception of the Rajarajeshwara temple in Tanjore, which is thought to have been created using a real fresco technique on the surface of the rock, the procedure of these paintings appears to have been the same in all the early instances that have survived.
  • The majority of the colours were accessible locally.
  • Animal hair was used to make brushes, including that of goats, camels, mongooses, etc.
  • Comparatively speaking, mural paintings differ from all other types of illustrative art. Their organic relationship to architecture and their widespread public importance are the two main characteristics that distinguish them as significant. Indian murals are incredibly expressive and practical.
  • Mural paintings have the power to dramatically alter how a structure feels about its spatial proportions through the use of colour, design, and theme treatment. Mural paintings are the only type of artwork that actually alters and shares a place, making them truly three-dimensional.
  • The natural pigments used in the mural paintings, such as terracotta, chalk, red ochre, and yellow ochre combined with animal fat, were used to create the colour palette.
  • The important mural paintings date to the eighth century AD and are distinguished by their linear styles. They can be seen in Bagh in Madhya Pradesh, the Badami caves in Karnataka, Sittannavasal in Tamil Nadu, and the Kailashanatha temple in Ellora, Maharashtra.

Indian mural paintings come in a variety of styles:

  • Tempera painting is accomplished by mixing colour with a water-soluble medium.
  • Painting using oil paints using the suspension of pigments in drying oils is known as "oil painting."
  • Fresco painting is an old technique that involved applying water-based paints to freshly laid plaster, typically on a wall façade.

Source: The Hindu


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