Nepali art
of the different periods reflects
various aspects of the society in the different stages of its
development. Originality in the form and the content on a whole shows the
development of the civilization with its unique qualities. In the following
lines attempts are made to take account of salient features of Nepali stone
sculpture, bronze art, wood art and painting of different ages. Religion has
played an important role for the development of art. Art of the old age, middle
age and even some aspects of the modern art cannot be seen in isolation from
the religion. In fact religious fervor has inspired the artistic creation. Some
aspects of Nepali art manifested in the making of things of religious importance
are described in the chapter devoted to pilgrimage. So, some points are not
brought under
discussion in order to avoid repetition.
Stone
Sculpture
Stone
sculptures in Nepal are believed to have emerged long before the birth of
Christ. There is a common believe that stone
image of Virupaksya, and a series of images entitled ‘Parvati Tapasya’ belong
to the Kirat period. However, such conclusions are made only on the bases of
the physical and formal features of the images since no inscriptions explaining
the dates are found so far.
From
Lichhavi period onwards-stone images with dates and other descriptions are
found. The images of Padmapani Buddha,
Vishnu Vikranta, Vishworup, Uma Maheshwor, Bhagavatis, Shiva Lingas and a
number of other images were built in the
period. Furthermore, the images of the period can be found at Hanumandhoka,
Changu Narayansthan, Dhumbarahi,
Shovabhagvati, Naxal Bhagvati and Pashupati.
The stone
images of the period have certain distinctive features that distinguish them
from the images of the earlier period. The images supposedly belonging to Kirat
period have round faces, curly hair, well developed forehead, robust body
and short stature whereas the stone images of Lichhavi period have long oval
faces, Aryan nose, thin dresses,
ornaments and crowns on heads. In addition, they have intricately donned hair.
The most striking thing about them is that they have picturesque vividness and
they are lively. The material used for making images is also good.
Mostly, hard
blue or black stone is used. Nepali stone sculpture entered another important
phase of its development in Thakuri and Malla period. Some of the famous images
built in this period are; Nrisimha’s image at Hanumandhoka, the images of
Radha-Rukmini with Krishna, a dozen of images in Patan Darbar Square, Krishna
with Dashavatar at Krishnamandir of Patan, Garuda, Vishnu, Uma Maheshwor,
Nrisimha, Bhairav-Bhairavi and Surya of bhaktapur etc. various characteristic
features distinguish them from the works of Lichhavi period.
The
distinctive features are:
- Relatively inferior material such as
soft sandstone is used to make the images,
- The vividness and fluency of the
Lichhavi period are lacking in this period because many artists of the period
were using metal as a material,
- Various part of the body of the
images are not proportionately worked out,
- Secular images were also made in the
period,
- The facial structure of the images
is the mixture of
Aryan and
Mongolian structure:
Furthermore
the images are decorated more and are adorned with a halo. In spite of those
conspicuous characteristics there are certain exceptions too; some out of trend
images were undoubtedly made in the period Bronze Art
The history
of bronze art is not as old as that of stone sculptures. Description of the
Chinese visitors and some of the coins of
Lichhavi period hint that the development of Bronze art in the earlier Lichhavi
period or even before the Lichhavi
regime. Some of the oldest metal images of Nepal are kept at the museum of Los
Angeles and Boston of the U.S.A. The
most important among them are the 9th century image of Padmapani Avalokiteshwor
and Buddha in the
meditative
pose. Nepal witnessed a swift development in the field after the Lichhavi
period. The images of stars related with Buddhism, Avalokiteshwor, Buddha,
Padmasambhar, Dipankar, Vishnu, Laxami, Indra, Ganesh, Bhairav and Kuber were
made in the middle age. Two methods of making metal images were used in the
period. One is the Lostwax process and the other is the method of moulding thin
metal sheets.
Both the
methods were used in making religious as well as secular images. In this age, a
significant addition to the store of images was made. That is the design of the
images in the Tantric mode. Various deities with several hands and other
symbolic icons were made in the trend. Furthermore, bronze images of the period
have certain special features that distinguish them from the stone images of
the same age. The most remarkable features are: long eyes, clear and distinct
eyebrows, imposing ornaments and the use of gaudi colours.
Wood Art
Wood is a
less durable material so only the descriptions of the wood art of the old age
are found. The works themselves decayed long ago. Most of the works that have
survived the weather of hundreds of years belong to the 15th to 18th century.
The works of
art can be divided into two groups. Firstly, portable images and other artistic
things and secondly,
the works of
art that form the integral parts of temples, monasteries, palaces and rest
houses (Sattalas). Decorative
doors,
windows, struts and tympanums belong to the second group. The works of art
belonging to the first category are kept in the National Museum of wood craft.
The image of Nrityadevi (15th century), the image of Basundhara (15th century),
the image of Vishworup (17th century) and the image of Marvijaya are some of
the artistic creation kept in the safety of the museum. Historical buildings,
palaces and temples offer finest examples of the artistic creations of the
second group some features are described below.
Artistic
Struts
Artistic
Struts of the temples of Nepal are considered to have great artistic merits.
The Struts protrude from the main
body of the
temple making 45 degree angle and they have the function of supporting the
structure of the roof. The roofs of Nepali temples are mostly multi tiered and
the upper ones are proportionately smaller than the lower ones. Almost all the
struts of a temple have intricately carved images. In all the four sides of the
temple there are the struts with the images of an extraordinary animal called
Sardula. In some temples images of an extraordinary animal with the horns of
the sheep are pictured on the struts protruding on all the four sides. Other
struts have the images of the deities and other things related in one way or
the other with main deity kept on the sanctum. Another interesting thing about
them is that they, as a whole, depict three categories of things. The struts of
the main places depict the principal deity of the temple; the struts of the
upper part depict various scenes of the heaven and the lowest ones depict the
various aspects of this phenomenal world
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