Page 14 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

PAINTING 11

attempt to create modeling. Moreover, here in the composition of colors, the quality
of formal depth is absent and it is of a particularly two-dimensional character.
Although the sculpture of the Pala age was based on the firm foundation of the
classical ideal, due to the two-dimensional character of the medium of painting the
impression of the line oriented characteristic peculiar to the mediaeval style was
reflected here even though at its inception this art showed the signs of classical
painting. In discussing Pala painting it should also be mentioned that, here the
mediaeval pictorial philosophy never found full expression as is to be seen in western
Indian manuscript painting. From the end of the tenth century to about the next
hundred and fifty years due to the gradual diffusion of the practice of the mediaeval
painting method Pala painting almost totally lost the classical ideal of painting. But
perhaps it cannot be said that it became completely extinct. However, this period in
Pala painting tended to be linear and ornamental in character. In should be mentioned
here that it is this line oriented character that is considered to be the principal quality
of Bengali paintings. On the other hand, from the fourteenth century in Gujrat in
Western India another separate stream of manuscript painting is met with. Apparent
similarity with this trend is also noticeable in Pala painting. But though there is the
similarity of the religious awareness of the middle ages in the two methods there is a
very clear difference in the mode of expression. In western Indian painting, the single
dimensional broken line devoid of emotion and the angular character of the line is
considered to be the main characteristic. On the other hand, the continuous flowing
sensitive line of Pala painting gives the content of the painting a rhythmic, poetic
liveliness. There is also a basic difference present in the execution of the Pala and
Gujrati paintings. The Pala painter filled the blank spaces with colors after first
drawing the outlines of the object. On the other hand, the Gujrati artist first painted the
shape of the image with the help of colors and later the form was completed and
defined with lines. Moreover, in Pala painting the line used at the finishing stage was
drawn in a slightly darker shade consistent with the particular color used in the form
of each figure in the painting. However, in Gujrati painting in most cases the outline
was drawn with the help of the black color.
Upon the end of the Pala rule, from the end of the twelfth century, the mediaeval style
was able to exert a considerable influence in Eastern India. As a result of the Muslim
invasion in the thirteenth century due to the change of the political atmosphere in
Bengal, a different cultural situation arose. Due to religious and other related causes the
Pala, or in other words, most of the Eastern Indian manuscripts were removed to the
neighboring countries of Nepal and Tibet. The degeneration of Pala painting in Bengal
was hastened. The painting which was born from the classical artistic ideal at the
beginning of the Pala age decayed but did not completely vanish till the end of the
twelfth century. In the background of the cultural chaos at the beginning of Muslim
rule, under the forceful influence of the mediaeval artistic ideal the beginning of the
end of the glorious era of Pala painting was initiated. In the paintings of this period the
signs of grossness of line and color composition were clearly manifest.