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Miniature Paintings

Indian paintings have been variously described: as layered objects in which one thing, or thought, is gently laid upon another; like schist rocks, foliated and iridescent; like a couplet in Persian or a doha in India, terse but meaningful; like a great floral carpet that lies rolled up but can be spread out endlessly, revealing new things with each mellow unfurling.Indian paintings have been variously described: as layered objects in which one thing, or thought, is gently laid upon another; like schist rocks, foliated and iridescent; like a couplet in Persian or a doha in India, terse but meaningful; like a great floral carpet that lies rolled up but can be spread out endlessly, revealing new things with each mellow unfurling.

Each description is seductive, and contains much truth. They are also in their different ways saying a single thing—a painting presents to us a layered world of meaning.

However imperfect the description might be, works on paper that make up the vast majority of Indian paintings go by the name of ‘miniatures’. They can vary greatly in size—from being smaller than postcards or, in some cases, not appreciably larger than outsized postage stamp to being close to a metre in height.

Yet the label remains.

Like a book, a miniature was meant to be taken in the hand and seen—‘read’ might describe it better—from close, so that the eye could move lingeringly over its small surface, take in its luminous colours, absorb every subtlety of detail, every pressure on the brush, and be led through it to the matrix of thoughts and images from which it had sprung.

Each of these paintings is telling a story, a movie. The skill of the artist lies in communicating the entire movie through a single moment captured in time. One may have heard these stories before, but they are represented in a new light . The innumerable minute details will delight each and all- from the layperson to a connoisseur of art.

Understanding a work of art is a highly spiritual and individualistic experience. What may transport one individual to another realm may leave another unaffected. One may spend hours gazing at it admiring every little detail while another may get lost in the detail. Either way, if it makes one come back to the painting to see it once more, then the artist has succeeded in his work.