| Specifications |
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Publisher: Centre For Heritage Studies, Tripunithura |
| Author Jenee Peter, P. K. Gopi | |
| Language: English | |
| Pages: 85 | |
| Cover: PAPERBACK | |
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8.5x5.5 Inch |
 |
Weight 130 gm |
| Edition: 2009 | |
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HBP040 |
| Delivery and Return Policies |
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Usually ships in 10 days |
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Returns and Exchanges accepted within 7 days |
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Free Delivery |
This study
is an outcome of a research programme and documentation of Christian mural
paintings of Kerala, undertaken by this centre by engaging its post graduate
diploma students in Archaeology in 2004. The authors, Dr. Jenee Peter and Mr.
P.K. Gopi later brought out this into a pioneering study of the mural paintings
of churches in Kerala. Even the church historians of Kerala had not attempted
such a course of academic activity in their pursuit.
In fact,
Kerala has a rich tradition of mural paintings from 16th to 19th century in
temples and palaces. This mainstream of our heritage had been enriched by the
church paintings. The church paintings have always been intended for
instructive and educative purposes and lacked a ritualistic value, as they were
not based on specific rules of iconography or painting followed in the temple
mural paintings. The themes were selected from the old and new testaments. They
differed in styles and techniques from place to place but adopted similarities
with Christian paintings in Europe as prevailed in the post-renaissance period.
This
publication has also incorporated a list of churches in Kerala with mural
paintings. It deals with the advent of Christianity and the emergence and
growth of church architecture. The indigenous style of these structures
gradually evolved into a more elaborate foreign influence in all aspects of
design and execution. Most of such grand structures remain as good example of
Indo-Europe shared cultural heritage. Some of these developments are traced in
this monograph with objectivity and brevity.
In brief,
they deserve more in-depth analysis in the context of features and stylistic
transformation of later Gothic practices in an alien land. Mural paintings, a
continuing tradition of Kerala temples as objects of cult and aesthetic symbols
were adopted in the churches also. The authors have treated some of these
elements of a living culture which had gone into a process of Indianisation
also.
As part of
heritage studies from this centre, it is our earnest desire that this monograph
will create academic interest in an area of historical archaeology and
development of culture.
Kerala's
rich mural art tradition stretching from first millennium AD to the present
forms an integral part of the cultural heritage of the state. It is a tradition
preserved and maintained over generations. Today, Kerala stands second only to
Rajastan in terms of both number and historic value since the Ajantha mural art
tradition. Mural paintings adorn many temples and palaces in Kerala. This art
spans over a thousand years from about 8th to 18th centuries AD and is divided
into three phases (Sashibhooshan: 1988) - the earliest specimens can be still
seen at Travancore and Kanyakumari. The second phase is immortalized by a
series of paintings at Mattanchery palace dated to the Portuguese period while
the third phase belongs to the Dutch period.
First
Phase: The 'Travancore' murals represent the earliest extant murals in
Kanyakumari district and have a prominent Nayak influence. Second Phase (c.
16°C). In this phase paintings are profuse with two distinct styles emerging at
Travancore and Cochin, While being baroque and highly decorative, the paintings
of this period are filled with minute details.
Third
Phase (c, mid seventeenth to mid eighteenth century):
During
this period mural art witnessed a gradual return to simplicity.
Techniques
of Mural Painting
Mural art
involves a collection of materials and techniques,
various
media, the pigments and binder, and diluting agents. The difference in the
selection of media by the artist leads to fresco, watercolor, oil, distemper,
gouache, tempera, and encaustic (Chitra and Srinivasan 1940). Hence, each mural
painting is unique. The simple and most common practice is to apply fresh lime
plaster on the walls. But in Kerala, unlike the frescoes at Ajantha, the
surface is left to dry before painting. Colours are prepared from natural
materials like vegetables, minerals and soot.
The usual
colours used in murals in Kerala are white, different shades of yellow, red and
ochre, different shades of green, blue in different tones, brown and black.
White is extracted from lime, black from lamp soot, red from hematite, yellow
from turmeric, and blue is obtained from the local nil amari plant or lapis
lazuli imported from Afghanistan (Shashibhooshan 1988). Nowadays these natural
eco friendly materials have been replaced by synthetic paints and distemper but
there is a revival of traditional methods as laid down in the Sanskrit and
vernacular texts
The
technique of painting also varies from artist to artist. Kerala's mural art
ichuvarchithramezhuthu) is found mainly in temples and palaces, Palaces at
Mattanchery, Krishnapuram and Padmanabhapuram and temples at Ettumanur,
Vaikkom, Pundarikapuram, Trichakrapuram, Trissur, Kottakkal, Thodeekulam and
Pandavam are richly endowed with mural paintings. Mural painting tradition has
been revived through the efforts of the few mural painting and conservation
institutes at Ettumanur, the Vasthu Vidya Gurukulam at Aranmula, Intach's Mural
Art Research, Conservation and Training Centre at Tripunithura and Mammiyur.
Fresco
('fresh': Italian) is the art of painting upon damp, fresh, lime plaster while
murals are executed upon dry plaster. In true fresco, the lime in the plaster
provides the binder. On drying, this forms Calcium carbonate. A large fresco
usually consists of many small sections, each painted in a day but the joints
are inconspicuous. Since colours are not lime-proof, fresco does not permit as
large a palette or as delicate a manipulation of transitional tones as oil
medium. The great masters of the Italian Renaissance brought fresco painting to
perfection. As only dry climates are hospitable to the medium, fresco technique
was rarely used in Kerala.
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