Painting and Sculpture
Contributions of Thiruvananthapuram to painting are immense. The earliest of murals that can be attributed to the Kerala tradition are found in a small cave-shrine at Thirunandikkara in south Travancore, now a part of Tamil Nadu. The themes of these murals are evidently drawn from Hindu lore, but the style closely resembles the Buddhist tradition. These are believed to belong to the 9th century. Siva, Parvathi and Ganapathi are among the figures represented. Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple at Thiruvananthapuram has several murals, which belongs to the 18th century. The paintings at Koikal Temple at Attingal bear close resemblance to those in the Padmanabha Swami Temple, which are examples of 16th century Kerala paintings. Raja Ravi Varma (1848–1905), an illustrious painter of the district, stands at the cross-roads of Indian art history. Ravi Varma’s contribution to Indian painting is substantial and singular. He is officially regarded as a prince among painters and painter among princes by the Kerala government. Some of the most famous paintings of Raja Ravi Varma are preserved in the Sri Chitra Art Gallery. The Sri Padmanabha Swami Temple at Thiruvananthapuram has preserved the relics of the best traditions of stone sculpture in the State.
Thiruvananthapuram city possess many statues in Kerala. The statues of freedom fighters, political leaders, rulers of Travancore are common in the city. There are also statues in other categories such as animals, fiction, etc.
Read more about this topic: Culture Of Thiruvananthapuram
Famous quotes containing the words painting and, painting and/or sculpture:
“This is the essential distinction—even opposition—between the painting and the film: the painting is composed subjectively, the film objectively. However highly we rate the function of the scenario writer—in actual practice it is rated very low—we must recognize that the film is not transposed directly and freely from the mind by means of a docile medium like paint, but must be cut piece-meal out of the lumbering material of the actual visible world.”
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“The peculiarity of sculpture is that it creates a three-dimensional object in space. Painting may strive to give on a two-dimensional plane, the illusion of space, but it is space itself as a perceived quantity that becomes the peculiar concern of the sculptor. We may say that for the painter space is a luxury; for the sculptor it is a necessity.”
—Sir Herbert Read (1893–1968)
“You should go to picture-galleries and museums of sculpture to be acted upon, and not to express or try to form your own perfectly futile opinion. It makes no difference to you or the world what you may think of any work of art. That is not the question; the point is how it affects you. The picture is the judge of your capacity, not you of its excellence; the world has long ago passed its judgment upon it, and now it is for the work to estimate you.”
—Anna C. Brackett (1836–1911)