History and Significance of Tanjore Painting
Tanjore paintings are one of the ancient’s paintings of India which are now in a verge of extinction like our tigers. These painting hold lot of significance as they said to brought positive energy home if you bring the Tanjore painting home but now only a handful of people knows the existence of these paintings.
According to the known history of the Tanjore painting, the first Tanjore painting is known to be 40,000 years old and it is made in a place named Thanjavur, a city in Tamil Nadu, India. It is found that to design the painting original precious gems and pure gold foils are used and for the bright colour and longer life oil painting is used in it. As a result the quality of the Tanjore painting remains the same even with many years of passing. The use of oil painting can be seen in many places because of this and now artisans use oil painting on canvas to draw various painting.
There are two major designs can be found for Tanjore painting and they are Chettinad and Mysore designs. 1. Chettinad Tanjore painting: This type of Tanjore painting is originated in same place as the first Tanjore painting which is Thanjavur, a city of Tamil Nadu and found that they lived around 1600 A.D. In this type of Tanjore painting the thick lines, bold colors, appropriate shapes can be seen which are designed with the balance without the question of out of shape and very appropriate choice of colour also can be seen.
2. Mysore Tanjore Paintings: This type of Tanjore Painting is originated in Mysore which is a city of Karnataka and said to live around from 2nd century B.C. to 7th century A.D and speak about the life of that time. In this type of Tanjore painting one can see the delicate lines, intricate brush strokes and graceful delineation of figures that are mainly gods and goddesses. The use of lustrous gold leaf and the bright vegetable colours are also another specialty of these types of Tanjore paintings.
Tanjore painting is an art that gives off its uniqueness and authentic nature to the one who lays their eyes upon them. They bring special energy to house if you hung them in your home. The figures in Tanjore paintings are mostly Hindu mythological gods like Shiva, Vishnu, Lakshmi, Sarastwati, Parvathi, and Krishna etc and to design the ornaments and clothing in them various gems and gold foils are used.
Modern times also affect the Tanjore painting like affecting any other old things but even with difficulty some artisans are still making sure of the future of the Tanjore painting.