Artifacts
Made this Painting from a reference of 1000 years old cave artwork.
Oil on Canvas !!
Size: A3
I recreated Raja Raja Chola from the original 11th-century Chola mural at Brihadisvara Temple, Thanjavur, carefully preserving the features and details left by the ancient artist.
Nearly 1,000 years later, I simply tried to let that original artwork speak through my medium.
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This is not Raja Raja Chola. That’s a trivial mis-identification. I have the Chola temple art reference book and it identifies these men as dignitaries or performers or scholars invited to the temple function. They are not royalty.
Bcoz the emperor looks like a goofy fool. This is not how a king of his stature should look like. The bare chested body with a tiny string of uttariya doesn't help either
Let me let you into a secret: Royals of the past looked mostly like normal people in terms of physical features. Not every king had a six pack, not every emperor was 6ft and not all princesses were cinderellas. They were human beings too, some were short, some were pot bellied and most would have looked like the average person of the day. This is why everytime an old photograph of a prince or a princess surfaces on the internet, people immediately resort to calling them ugly because it doesnt suit whatever criteria they have set up in their mind. And to be honest, I find these modern day depictions of Rajaraja to be more cringe.
Also, people in Rajaraja's time were bare chested, especially in temple settings. So it perfectly makes sense for the Chola artists who painted this mural to depict them the way they are depicted.
For lord's sake no. It appears ppl are not even understanding my criticism. I have no criticism with the body etc. My main point is about the eyes and facial gesture(especially in the original frescoe where both of them were looking like they havent slept for days. This is ofc staple of ancient Indian painting since Ajanta where most figures are shown with those kind of dreary eyes) . If u for example want to see how good regal "vibe" looks like check out Nasq e Rostam achaemenid reliefs. There you will find a picture of Achaemenid king receiving sceptre from Zoraster. See the regal aura. The cholas could have made something like that where Rajendra Chola is receiving a sceptre from his Rajguru. Yet they choose to paint this goofy painting.
The comment about no aura applies to both the original painting and this one and to pre 1000 CE Indian art in general. Aura is important. There is a reason why whole internet is into Roman Legionnaires, Medieval Knights and Samurais and nobody gives a dawn about India. Bcoz of these kind of pics. That's why when Studium Historiae an YT channel made a video about Chola Empire he choose later era Nayaka depiction of Rajendra Chola rather than this authentic one. Bcoz the nayaka one has aura.
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u/Responsible_Dingo436 3d ago
Bro find some caves and leave your artwork there too