The walls of most of the temples in Kerala are painted. The World of Gods is the content of the painted walls.
The paintings glow in sombre colors, Indian red, terre verte (sap green), white, black and yellow; blue is very sparingly used; the technique is tempera, the binding medium being made from the seed of abrus precatorius (kunni kuru). The ground of the paintings is a specially prepared plaster to which may be added thin washes of lime. The white in the paintings is that of white surface and also the deep black ones help in fixing to the surface the round effect of the bodies and limbs of the figures. These are modeled in color, yellow being stippled with red while green is shaded with black. A black outline furthermore binds in the surface the rotundity of the limbs.
The colour schemes in the murals represent certain symbolic characteristics. Deities depicted in the murals are given colours on the basis of their triple attributes - Sathwikam, Rajasam and Thamasam i.e. Pure or Divine (the quality of Satvik) Valour or Prosperous (the quality of Rajasik)and impure, sinful behavior, ignorant (the quality of Thamas) respectively. The green or blue usually represents Sathwikam,the red and yellow represents Rajasam, while white and black for Thamasam.
No comments:
Post a Comment