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.
