The Lady with the Sword (Framed Oil Painting)

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The situation that the painting seems to portray is perhaps love-related. As emerges the picture, she appears to be on an outing expedition where leaving her alone as also his sword in her hands her lover, the prince, has gone away with her friends, accompanying her on her expedition, a painful love-situation parallel to Radha’s, in the Gita-Govinda, by the great Sanskrit poet Jaideva, where leaving Radha alone desperately awaiting him in a moonlit night in the forest, despite all his vows and promises, Krishna disappears making love with other Gopis, the Radha’s own friends. The folios of medieval miniatures, illustrating the related verse of the Gita-Govinda, often portray a lone Radha with a lotus or a flower-garland in hands for welcoming Krishna who is away with other Gopis engulfing Radha in deep anguish and disappointment. Except for a widely different art-idiom of the modern art and, of course, the element of sword, in place of the Radha’s lotus or flower-garland, affording further breadth to the prince’s neglectful treatment of her, the two tales of love are largely identical. Maybe, Anup Gomay has taken inspiration for his theme from a Gita-Govinda folio.

A royal personage, perhaps a princess, the young lady is clad in glowing saffron with rust-like mixed tint brocaded in rich gold in characteristic Banarasi weave using butis covering the entire field of the lehenga and the wide borders designed differently for lehenga, odhini and blouse, in blouse the designs and dimensions, breadth etc., of the bordering bands being different for the sleeve-ends, neck-opening and bottom. The fields of odhini and blouse are plain. As if manufactured to size, with its mountain peak-like rising centre the brocading of the bottom part of blouse perfectly fits with the shape of the lady’s breasts. Symmetrically laid pleats and systematic placing of butis in lehenga and the style of odhini distributing the lehenga with its parallel gold-bands and with extra stretch projecting beyond the shoulder it is laid on affording amicable base for the face turned in the direction present delightful examples of artistic manipulation.

The most artistic and delicately designed belly-band, inlaid with rubies, emeralds and diamonds in gold, the same as are cast all other ornaments she is putting on, has been used to hold the odhini in place. The neck-ornament with a circular pendent, ear-rings and their other components, the style of hair-dressing and hair-ornaments, the forehead pendent conceived with a large piece of emerald, and the character of the sword, its gold hilt and beautifully embossed velvet sheath, all are reminiscent of medieval court-life, and the lady’s nobility origin. A tall delicately modeled figure with wheat-like golden skin, subdued belly, slender arms and fine long delicate fingers, the lady brims with youthful vigour and possesses voluptuous beauty. The figure of the lady, endowed with fascinating eyes and elegantly arching eye-brows, cute small lips, well-defined nose and cheeks, and a slightly angular chin and face, all rendered realistically in the idiom of modern art, is an exceptional example of timeless beauty. In conceiving his background the artist has used a wide range of folk motifs, perhaps to suggest that as the tradition, which best reveals in folk, is timeless, so is love, in union or separation : the theme of this painting.

This description by Prof. P.C. Jain and Dr. Daljeet. Prof. Jain specializes on the aesthetics of literature and is the author of numerous books on Indian art and culture. Dr. Daljeet is the curator of the Miniature Painting Gallery, National Museum, New Delhi. They have both collaborated together on a number of books.

Oil painting technique – India centric

Oil painting is the most interesting technique in art. Unlike other paintings or art forms, oil painting is a process in which colored pigments are painted on the canvas with a drying oil medium as a binder. This medium helps colors blend beautifully to create layers and also makes them appear rich and dense. Several varieties of oil are used in this painting such as sunflower oil, linseed oil, etc., and depending on the quality of the oil, a particular consistency of the paint is developed. With the use of an oil medium, the painting gets a natural sheen on the surface which appears extremely attractive. India is famous for its old tradition of making oil paintings. This art form was brought by Europeans in the 18th century and is now practiced by almost all well-known artists. Nirmal, a small tribal town in the state of Telangana is the center of traditional oil paintings in India where the local people practice it with dedication. Most Indian artists still use the traditional technique of oil painting.

Canvas of the required size is prepared

The artists use either a wood panel or canvas made from linen or cotton. Sometimes the canvas is stretched onto the wooden frame to form a solid base, or cardboard may be used. The canvas is coated with a layer of white paint or chalk mixed with animal glue. This mixture is then smoothed and dried to form a uniform, textured surface. The wooden panel is more expensive and heavier but its solidity is an advantage in making detailed paintings with ease.

Sketch is drawn on the canvas

Now the artist starts to draw the subject of the painting on the canvas using the actual charcoal or a charcoal pencil. Sometimes, he may sketch with thinned paint as well.

Oil paint is applied using paint brushes or palette knives

Now that the rough sketch is prepared, the artist is now ready to paint. Oil paint, a special paint that contains particles of pigments suspended in a drying oil (usually linseed oil), is again mixed with oil to make it thinner for applying it on the canvas. Proper consistency of the paint is maintained to avoid its breakage. The most important rule for the application of oil paint is “Fat over lean” in which the first layer of paint is thin and later, thicker layers are applied. This means that each additional layer of paint contains more oil. This results in getting a stable paint film. Traditionally, paint was applied using paint brushes but now the artists also use palette knives to create crisp strokes. To paint using this technique, the edge of the palette knife is used to create textured strokes that appear different from that of a paintbrush. Sometimes, oil paints are blended simply using fingers for getting the desired gradation.

Smaller oil paintings, with very fine detail, are relatively easier to paint than larger ones. The most attractive feature of these paintings is the natural shiny appearance that is obtained on the surface because of the use of oil paint. The blending of colors looks extremely realistic and this is the reason why oil paintings are loved by everyone throughout the world.