page_title: Thanjavur painting
section_title: Introduction
hierarchical_section_title: Thanjavur painting / History / Introduction
caption_attribution_description: The pictures made by Indian artists for the British in India are called Company paintings. This one shows Amar Singh and Sarabhoji. The fact that Amar Singh is in the larger gilded carriage suggests that this painting was made before 1798, the year that the British pensioned him off and sent him away. Sarabhoji (shown here in the smaller carriage) was then recognised as ruler of the state.
context_page_description: Thanjavur painting is a classical South Indian painting style, which was inaugurated from the town of Thanjavur. The art form draws its immediate resources and inspiration from way back about 1600 AD, a period when the Nayakas of Thanjavur under the suzerainty of the Vijayanagara Rayas encouraged art—chiefly, classical dance and music—as well as literature, both in Telugu and Tamil and painting of chiefly Hindu religious subjects in temples. It is distinguished by its famous gold coating. However, it can safely be surmised that Thanjavur painting, as we know it now, originated in the Maratha court of Thanjavur. It has been recognized as a Geographical indication by the Government of India in 2007-08.
  Thanjavur paintings are characterised by rich and vivid colors, simple iconic composition, glittering gold foils overlaid on delicate but extensive gesso work and inlay of glass beads and pieces or very rarely precious and semi-precious gems. In Thanjavur paintings one can see the influence of Deccani, Vijayanagar, Maratha and even European or Company styles of painting. Essentially serving as devotional icons, the subjects of most paintings are Hindu gods, goddesses, and saints.
context_section_description: Thanjavur has a unique place in the history of Indian painting, in that it houses the 11th century Chola wall paintings in the Brihadeeswarar temple (Periya koyil or Pervudaiyar koyil in Tamil) as also paintings from the Nayak period (many times superimposed on the earlier Chola paintings) dating to the 16th century. The fall of the Vijayanagar Empire and the sack of Hampi in the Battle of Talikota in 1565 CE resulted in the migration of painters who had been dependent on the patronage of the empire. Some of them migrated to Thanjavur and worked under the patronage of the Thanjavur Nayakas. Subsequently, the Maratha rulers who defeated the Thanjavur Nayakas began to nurture the Thanjavur atelier. Needless to say, the artists absorbed the local influences and the individual tastes of their Maratha patrons which helped evolve the unique Thanjavur style of painting. The Thanjavur artists in addition to decorating temples also began painting and decorating the major buildings, palaces, chatrams and residences of the Maratha kings and nobility.
caption: Processional scene with Amar Singh, ruler of Thanjavur (1787–98) and Sarabhoji (1798–1832) – note the gilded chariots being pulled by Bulls
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