OUR AIM
We would like to share this collection of splendid murals with as many fellow enthusiasts, students, scholars, and travellers, as possible. The aim of this documentation is not only to provide a tool for further research on South Indian painting, but mainly to make the art world aware of this endangered cultural heritage and to encourage not only scholarship, but also restoration and conservation works.
OUR AIM
We would like to share this collection of splendid murals with as many fellow enthusiasts, students, scholars, and travellers, as possible. The aim of this documentation is not only to provide a tool for further research on South Indian painting, but mainly to make the art world aware of this endangered cultural heritage and to encourage not only scholarship, but also restoration and conservation works.
WHO
Anna L. Dallapiccola
Anna L. Dallapiccola has a Ph.D in Indian Art History, a Habilitation (D.Litt.) from University of Heidelberg, Germany. Formerly Professor of Indian Art at the South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University from 1971 to 1995, she was appointed Honorary Professor at Edinburgh University in 1991. She participated in the Vijayanagara Research Project from 1984 to 2001 writing mainly on sculpture and iconography. She has presented papers at a number of international conferences and written and edited many books.
Her most recent publications are: Catalogue of South Indian Paintings in the collection of the British Museum (London, 2010); The Great Platform at Vijayanagara (New Delhi 2010); Indian Painting: The Lesser Known Traditions (New Delhi, 2011) and Kalamkari Temple Hangings (London, 2015). She is presently collaborating with Dr Anila Verghese, Mumbai, on a research project focusing on the art of the Vijayanagara successors states in southern India.
John and Fausta Eskenazi
John Eskenazi has over forty years of experience in the field of Asian art and antiquities and is a specialist in collectors’ carpets and textiles. Works of art from the gallery he established with his wife, Fausta, are now housed in major private collections and more than forty museums and institutions worldwide. Together, John and Fausta Eskenazi have produced a number of important art publications, notably Dunhuang, Caves of the Singing Sands: Buddhist Art from the Silk Road and Tibetan Elemental Divination Paintings: Illuminated manuscripts from The White Beryl. John Eskenazi co-curated the acclaimed exhibition, Chola : Sacred Bronzes of Southern India at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 2006 and is a founding partner of The Art Newspaper as well as Asia Week New York and Asian Art in London, both now firmly established in the art market calendar.
Mr.C.Ganesan
This project would have not been possible without the invaluable help and enthusiastic collaboration of Mr. Ganesan, the photographer responsible for all the pictures on this site.
Mr.C.Ganesan is a Professional Photographer based in Chennai who caters to all the photography needs of his vast clientele.Having more than 35 years of expertise in the field, he artistically combines old school techniques with new age technology. Low Light photography being his forte, he enjoys being a part of challenging projects.
WHY
In the course of many years of travel and research in South India I noted how the murals adorning the walls of temples and palaces were fading and eventually disappearing. Water seepage, vermin, vandalism, but above all neglect, were the main causes of decay. By 1989 I started documenting South Indian wall paintings mainly in Tamil Nadu. This documentation work continued for many years and would have gathered dust on my shelves, were it not for the enthusiastic support of John and Fausta Eskenazi. In 2012 they mooted the idea of hiring a professional photographer and systematically document the murals. In 2013 we started the photographic documentation. Unfortunately, in the past decades some of the murals visible in 1989 are no longer extant, either, deemed too damaged, they have been sandblasted, or they have been replaced by modern paintings. In view of these developments, it is imperative to publish here the data collected in the past few years in the hope to encourage scholarship and conservation work.
It is our duty to preserve for future generations as much as possible of this magnificent and rapidly vanishing cultural heritage. We would greatly appreciate if you would subscribe to our mailing list, contact us with your comments, suggestions, and any additional information you may want to share with us. This website is a ‘work in progress’ and we hope that its visibility may draw your attention to these sites, raise awareness of their precarious conditions, and thus save them, as far as possible, from total extinction.
Anna L. Dallapiccola
Further Reading
Support
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