Ravi Varma turned naturalism into mythological style: Dr Ratan Parimoo

ALAPPUZHA: “The legendary Raja Ravi Varma  never received  due recognition from the master artists during his time,” observed  Dr. Ratan Parimoo, director, LD Museum, Ahmedabad,   who has been doing  research on Ravi Varma works for the last five decades. Delivering a speech on the 168th birth anniversary of Raja Ravi Varma  at Raja Ravi Varma Centre of Excellence for Visual Arts, Mavelikara, on Friday,  Dr Parimoo,  former dean and   professor at the M.S. University in Vadodara,  said that the main  feature of  Ravi Varma’s painting  was adaptation of  naturalism without the influence of  eighteenth-century European paintings.

“Ravi Varma’s talent  evolved into an innovative level by years of learning Indian mythology from the palace scholars,” he said.   “I  once thought that he was inspired by the European classics like Sandro Botticelli’s  ‘The Birth of Venus,’ Leonardo da Vinci’s  ‘Study drawing of an angel,’ Raphael Sanzio’s ‘Madonna of the Rocks,’  Giorgione and Titian. But, after decades of extensive research I can say the works of Ravi Varma were  different from European arts in terms of colour combination, oils and brush works.  

There is astute observation of the real structure. Look at  one of his masterpieces, Shakunthala.  Everybody sees Shakunthala standing and  removing a thorn from her  heel,  but the reality is that it shows how Indian women  expressed their love.  Look at her eyes;  she looks elsewhere. Indeed,  Shakunthala was looking at his lover Dhushyantha while purportedly removing the thorn from her heel,” he said.

There is extreme of sensuality and tragedy in his paintings.  “In  Nala- Damayanthi  (1890), you can find   the extreme tragic moments in their story.   The Peasant Girl (1890) and Radhamadhav (1890) bring you to stunning aesthetics of sensuality.  In ‘Visamitra and Menaka,’  you see the excessive use of male sensuality as well.  These  works developed out of the ability of Ravi Varma to turn normal characters into the mythological style. For that, the best example is  Saraswathy (1896 ),”  Dr Parimoo said.