British colonial powers played a very specific role within India, directly affecting Indian identity and the country's deep religious traditions. National resistance to these outside Western forces on Indian Culture has taken many shapes and forms throughout the years, most notably through art and cultural production. Here we will focus on the paintings by Abanindranath Tagore and the Bengal School of Art. The Bengal School of Art was a nationalist artistic movement that fought against Western conventions and depictions of the Orient. Artists like Tagore renounced all aesthetics that had been used to denigrate or romanticize India and strove to create a new identity that could further their cause for independence. Of primary concern for the school, was how to define a cohesive national identity that would help unify the peoples of India and empower them to fight for independence from the British Empire. Tagore and the Bengal School achieved this through various means, whether it was in aligning their aesthetics with indigenous Asian traditions or focusing the subject of their paintings on the important concerns of early twentieth-century Indians such as religion, history, family, and nationalism. The School depicted how Indians see themselves and most importantly, how they wanted to be seen. Their presented identity was constructed for themselves and a renunciation against the Western perspective forced upon them through the imperialistic lens of Orientalism. Studying art is a tangible way to examine the issues India and its peoples were grappling with during British rule. Unfortunately, non-Western art and its creators have historically been discussed through the orientalist eyes of Westerners rather than the natives themselves. Therefore, as a white, Western Christian, every attempt has been made to write analysis strictly based upon the presented information from the artists themselves or discussions raised in Indian exhibition catalogues and/or reviews, newspapers, and articles. This is not an examination of an "other," for it is not about the West. It is about India and how they strove to reclaim their identity through art in the midst of their struggle for independence.
Although Bharat Mata in the painting bears four arms and a halo as marks of divinity, this is a deity that is deeply humanistic. Dressed in a traditional sari and featuring the skin tone of an Indian woman, not the trademark blue of a deity, she is a true reflection of her people. In each of her outstretched arms are the necessities for a happy and healthy life in her land. One hand contains the food of the land; another is a strand of religious beads, vastra. She is also holding a piece of clothing to cover her people and a manuscript containing the Vedas, the foundation for India's native religions. Bharat Mata is a true mother to India as she provides for the spiritual and physical needs of all her people. A key message that Tagore is trying to convey within the painting is how closely Indian nationalism is tied to the religion of the land. National independence is both patriotic and religious duty for Indians. In addition, Tagore is not just depicting a goddess or a symbolic image of India. Rather, through this image, he is making a profound political statement that Bharat Mata, the mother goddess of India, not imperial Britain, will provide for her people. In the third century BCE, the emperor Asoka of the powerful Mauryan Dynasty unified India. In Asoka, Tagore conveys his nationalist ideals by reminding Indians of their historic past. India was once unified from within and was a great power because of its own ability and resources, not due to British (or Western) influences. India can once again reach a golden age, but attaining independence must come from national and religious unity among India's citizens. Yet again, religion is at the forefront of the nationalist message. Asoka is known historically for his conversion to Buddhism and spreading its ideals throughout the land with his pillars. The painting's most important religious message, however, stems from the distant temple in the background. Depicted as the Kashmir landscape, the temple is the Shankaracharya Temple sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists and repaired and restored by Sikhs. The temple is symbolic of religious unity between three of India's indigenous faiths. In the painting Asoka, Tagore highlights two imperative factors necessary for India to attain future independence: political and religious unity. The Bengal School of art and its forefather, Abanindranath Tagore, did not just focus on the pictorial message to convey their nationalist message; they also utilized the more subtle means of aesthetics. Little to no indigenous painting exists within India prior to the Mughal Dynasty and even then, the medium and style were imported from the Persian courts. Indian miniatures find their origins in Persia, not the motherland. Therefore, the Bengal School looked to their Far Eastern neighbors for influence. Having no style to truly call their own, Tagore and other artists of the Bengal School created a Pan-Asian aesthetic. Seeking to remove itself from the opulent materialism of Western Painting, the Bengal School wanted to reflect the spiritual nature so essential to the lives of native Indians. They felt it was best exemplified in the style of early Chinese paintings. Asoka is reminiscent of the paintings of China's Southern Song Dynasty, a period known for depicting spiritual and mystical pictorial landscapes that reflected the country's Neo-Confuscist ideologies. Tagore depicts such an image as Asoka sits atop a high peak gazing upon the land he unified. Asoka is like the wise old men of the Song paintings seeking out knowledge within a mystical landscape. Here Tagore creates a painting that is deeply spiritual and lacks a Western materialist perspective. Despite its exoticism, any trace of Western Orientalism is absent in Asoka's depiction. Although its style may not be indigenous, Asoka is painted in a style that is decisively not Western. It unifies Asia artistically through aesthetics while highlighting the importance of religion and spirituality. Tagore and The Bengal School of Art were keenly aware of the underlying political motives behind seemingly benevolent forces like artistic mediums and styles; thus, they successfully utilized their adroit ability to render a new Pan-Asian style in such a fashion that would only further their nationalistic ideals. Religion is inseparable from Indian Culture and the lived experience. In Ganesh-Janani, Tagore depicts a loving Parvati playing with her son Ganesh within the Indian landscape. The deep-rooted connection between indigenous faith and the land of India itself is apparent. These deities dwell within the motherland; India is their home. This a point further emphasized with Mount Kailasa in the distance. This painting does not just depict two deities living within India, but rather expresses that the native religions of India are engrained in the land. India is infused with religious and spiritual meaning that must be harnessed and recognized for the sake of its future independence. Furthermore, Tagore once again does not depict a goddess, Parvati, in the traditional manner of a blue-skinned deity. Rather, she is simply a loving mother playing with her child. Continuing to break away from Western artistic ideals, Parvati may be idealized, but Tagore ensures that she is not exoticized. Parvati, in fact, could be any Indian woman. India: its gods, land, and people are all being depicted through the eyes of Tagore, an Indian, not the Orientalist eyes of a Westerner. The Bengal School of Art renounced the mediums used within Western forms of art and chose a more indigenous form of painting. Therefore, the artists within the school no longer used oils. Tagore looked to India's oldest surviving paintings, the caves of Ajanta for inspiration. The ancient artists of the caves used a medium called gouache, also a popular medium for Persian miniatures. However, the medium was embraced not out of familiarity, but for its roots to the artists of ancient India. Nearly all of Tagore's paintings, including Ganesh-Janani, are painted in gouache. Just as the artists of The Bengal School of Art returned to its roots for inspiration, so too must Indians return to the historic origins of their homeland to find a path to national independence. Twilight was far less politically motivated for Tagore than other paintings created within The Bengal School of Art. The painting subtly hints at the fading British Empire, that their time will indeed end. Yet, this is not the focus of Twilight. It is an illustration conveying the deep instilled Indian values of family. Here Tagore paints himself in discussion with his aging artistic uncle, Rabindranath Tagore, atop their family home in Calcutta. The two share a bond of mutual respect and love as Rabindranath passes along his knowledge and experience to Abanindranath. Family is a primary foundation to the lives of all Indians, but it must also remain of the utmost important as India navigates through the rough journey of independence. As knowledge continues to be shared from the wise elders to the active youths of India, then Twilight will end, and along with it, the reign of the British Empire. A new dawn for India will begin and the importance of family will continue to endure.
0 Comments
**This is the fifth and final installment on the evolution of large-scale french painting as seen in the premiere wings of the Louvre in Paris**
Eugene Delacroix’s Death of Sardanapalus marks the complete shift from the Neo-classical Academic style to Romanticism and the full embrace of Orientalism. Delacroix was a friend and associate of Gericault and was clearly influenced by his work. Yet, as seen in Sardanapalus, he adopts the movement more fully. Initially, he was also trained in the Neo-classical style, but rejected it because of the aforementioned lack of expression and movement. As a result, he became the fierce competitor and rival to the Neo-classical champion, Ingres. Death of Sardanapalus does not use a modern story line. Rather, it stems from the pages of Byron’s tragedy about the Assyrian king and his conquered city. Delacroix takes liberties with the story and shows an apathetic Sardanapalus sitting atop his bed as he watches his men carry out his orders: kill all the concubines, servants and animals before the enemy can take them. Nonetheless, France was consumed with Orientalism at this period; so the theme of the painting is still quite contemporary despite the time in which it is set. The Near East was a favorite subject of Romanticism for the artists felt it was filled with the tragedy, mystery, exoticism and heroism their movement so loved to capture. Just as David favored Rome and the political messages within the historical paintings, Delacroix and other artists of Romanticism felt the Orient best suited their artistic tendencies. Gone is any semblance of order or balance within Sardanapalus. Delacroix creates a scene filled with drama and chaos, exemplifying Romanticism’s stylistic ideals. The chaos is necessary, however, to accurately capture the mood of the scene. Delacroix still understands the importance of line and draftsmanship, but uses it in a manner that is vastly different than Ingres or David. Brushstrokes are sketchy and expressive—loose as they swirl around creating the chaotic movement necessary for the moment. Figures and shapes are curvilinear, directing the eye into a circle throughout the composition as though the viewer were descending into a whirlpool of madness with Sardanapalus himself. He understands that figures in movement are not perfectly defined. In addition, Delacroix pays special attention to the use of color in Sardanapalus. Colors are rich and bold reds and golds. They best reflect the Orient and heighten the erotic scene as they contrast against the ivory of the concubines’ skin. No longer is color simply used to direct the eye or create a balanced painting, they are utilized to enhance the image that is presented to their viewer, to better convey what the artist is trying to depict: madness, bedlam, eroticism. Ultimately, Delacroix and Romanticism were vastly different from Neo-classicism, but it was necessary, because so were their artistic ideals. *This is the third installment of a five-part series on the evolution of large-scale French Painting and a personal favorite of the author*
Although Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres’ La Grande Odalisque continues to mark the shift in style and subject for French large-scale painting, it is still emblematic of the nineteenth century Academic style. Ingres was a student of David’s; they soon parted ways, however, due to artistic differences--differences that would become emblematic of Ingres' style. Nonetheless their academic and professional backgrounds are strikingly similar. Ingres trained in the Academic style that was now rooted in the Neo-Classicism David introduced in his Oath of the Horatii. In 1801, Ingres also won the coveted Prix de Rome, but did not travel to Italy until 1807. During this time he, too, gained commissions from the emperor, Napoleon, with the aid of his teacher, David. Staying true to the academic style set forth by David, Ingres painted large-scale images of mythology or the grand past with several grandiose images of Napoleon himself. It was not until Ingres finally set forth on his travels to Rome, however, that he would finally paint La Grande Odalisque. Ingres’ La Grande Odalisque is quite unique in its focus on precise draftsmanship mixed with figural distortion. Like David, Ingres favors line over color. The woman’s figure is beautifully rendered through use of chiaroscuro, her golden skin highly realistic. Every textile is expertly painted to accurately capture its own unique texture. Ingres still utilizes color to emphasize the odalisque’s form and sensuality, but his artistic focus does not lie there. What is so unusual, however, is that despite the close attention to form, line, and texture, Ingres paints a female whose figure is not one of nature. In fact, it appears as though she has just a few too many vertebrae. This ultimately becomes a trademark of Ingres’ female nudes. David painted figures exactly as they were, to illustrate his true ability to capture the human form accurately. Although Ingres’ stylistic idiosyncrasy steers him away from being a perfect prototype of the academic style, he was still deemed its champion in the beginning of the nineteenth-century to combat the changes that were starting to arise with the advent of Romanticism. The painterly evolution continued as Odalisque introduced a thoroughly modern and exotic subject matter. As Napoleon began his campaign to Egypt in 1798, the fascination with the Near East began. Orientalism was introduced and paintings were slowly becoming more exotic to reflect this newfound interest. Paintings became increasingly erotic, sensual and filled with women from harems. Ingres, too, was fascinated with this new subject matter and made it the focus of Odalisque. The woman is a concubine within a harem, as the term odalisque implies. There is nothing grand or mythological about Odalisque. Nonetheless, with a powerful painter and Prix de Rome winner such as Ingres now painting Orientalized figures, it helped usher in a full Orientalist movement within the Academic style that ultimately influenced future artists such as Jean-Léon Gerôme. Although Ingres appears to be breaking from tradition in several ways with Odalisque, there were several aspects about his painting that allowed viewers to more readily accept these changes. Academics typically painted royal portraits, mythological scenes or dramatic images from the ancient past; Ingres did not. Thus, part of what made the painting acceptable was its size. For although Odalisque is large, roughly three-feet by five-feet, it is not painted on the same grand scale as the Horatii or Coronation. Furthermore, while there appears to be a sharp break in subject matter, Ingres was clearly influenced by his studies in Italy. What helped ease in Odalisque to the general public was its clear reference to the Venetian Renaissance master, Titian, and his Venus of Urbino. The subject may not be grand or mythological, but it is directly influenced by an earlier attempt to rekindle the Classical spirit of Rome by Titian. The same is true for his unusual elongation of the female form. Ingres was criticized for this feature, but once again it was eventually tolerated because of Michelangelo. Having studied in Rome and the Sistine Chapel, Ingres understood the artistic liberties one could take with the human form while still creating a realistic, but exaggerated figure. He drew upon this in Odalisque. One could criticize him, but not his inspiration. Thus, La Grande Odalisque was met with less critical scorn and eventually accepted. |
AuthorScholar. Student. Unadulterated lover of all art forms. Archives
September 2017
Categories
All
|