| Story Text | [{"record_id":"0","storytext":"In the nineteenth century, parallel to the popular art tradition of Kalighat pat watercolour paintings found in the bazaars of Calcutta, a genre of indigenous oil painting developed across Bengal\u2019s many colonies. At times comparable to the pats<\/I> in subject matter, iconography, and even in the style of execution, the oils catered exclusively to Indian elites\u2014the babu<\/I>, the baniyan<\/I>, and the zamindar<\/I>","initialize":"true","storytextauthor":""},{"record_id":"1","storytext":"The oil paintings mostly described Hindu icons and myths, and were present across British, French, and Dutch colonies of Bengal. \r\nDepending on whether artworks could be traced back to mansions in the French colony at Chandannagar or the Dutch colony at Chinsurah, an early attempt was made to categorise this art as \u2018French Bengal\u2019 or \u2018Dutch Bengal\u2019 painting, respectively. But this classification was not practical as overlaps in styles and iconography existed (alongside those found in Calcutta), and therefore the more generic name \u2018Early Bengal\u2019 oil painting was adopted.\r\n","initialize":"true","storytextauthor":""},{"record_id":"2","storytext":"Humour in Heaven<\/I> is a unique artwork in this genre because it portrays gods as beings susceptible to human emotion, which is far removed from their stoic and poised altar portraits. The inscription at the bottom of the painting, a hymn written in Bengali, describes the unfolding events.","initialize":"true","storytextauthor":""},{"record_id":"3","storytext":"After a prolonged absence from Kailash, Shiva finally returns home riding on Nandi, but he is deeply inebriated. Angered by her husband\u2019s state, Parvati sets her lion after the bull, who panics and throws Shiva off his back. As the god lies stunned on the ground, Parvati claps her hands and ridicules him","initialize":"true","storytextauthor":""},{"record_id":"4","storytext":"The couple\u2019s sons, Ganesha and Kartikeya are present by their mother to witness the entire charade. The children\u2019s mounts, a mouse and a peacock, respectively, are also present in the scene and appear to flee away from the larger beasts. Images such as these, although rare, challenge preconceived ideas of divinity by humanising gods and showing their susceptibility for human emotions.","initialize":"true","storytextauthor":""},{"record_id":"5","storytext":"In religious scriptures, Shiva and Parvati\u2019s marriage is a metaphor for the delicate balance between material and non-material planes of existence, but in popular culture they represented the ideal Bengali family.","initialize":"true","storytextauthor":""},{"record_id":"6","storytext":"Shiva is the mild-mannered and good-humoured father. Parvati (alternatively, Durga) is the wise homemaker and mother to two boys contesting for her approval.","initialize":"true","storytextauthor":""},{"record_id":"7","storytext":"Tapati Guha-Thakurta, who documented art produced in Bengal during this period, wrote about early oil paintings produced by unknown artists in The Making of a \u2018New\u2019 Indian Art: Artists, Aesthetics and Nationalism in Bengal, c. 1850-1920:<\/I> \r\n \u2018In many of the early pictures, the figures retain a distinctly folkish and stylised quality, and the colours remain flat and opaque\u2026 Despite a trend towards naturalism, a large number of these paintings seem very close in spirit to the contemporary stylised images in the Kalighat paintings and the Bat-tala prints. Even where the new medium of oil was adopted, the application of paint followed tempera model of thick opaque patches, and raw, bright tones. In some of the pictures the figures carry, distinctly, the linear and tubular quality of the Kalighat images, with similar shading along the outlines of limbs and drapery folds.\u2019\r\n","initialize":"true","storytextauthor":""},{"record_id":"8","storytext":"Similar to the urban patuas<\/I> of Kalighat, the identity of oil artists remains unknown until well into the last decades of the nineteenth century. It was perhaps deemed uncouth to tarnish a god\u2019s image with a personalised signature. It may also be inferred that the artist (or a group of artists working together in a studio) were viewed as belonging to the same category as other traditional arts, such as kumors<\/I> tasked with sculpting clay idols for ritual worship.","initialize":"true","storytextauthor":""},{"record_id":"9","storytext":"The styles and execution of religious oil painting underwent considerable changes during the nineteenth century, as better means of technical education were made available to artists. Some appear closer to the miniature tradition\u2014with foreshortening and flattened perspective\u2014while others employ a visibly more Western, realistic technique.","initialize":"true","storytextauthor":""}] |
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| Art Artist Names Single | Anonymous (Early Bengal) |
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