Of fifth century paintings

By Shireen SENADHIRA

Looking back on styles of art, the 5th Century is significant in that there evolved two distinct styles of art pertaining to Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) and Istanbul, Turkey.

A bevy of alluring damsels having high foreheads shaping their faces with enticing doe eyes, a rose coloured blush on their cheeks and lips like lotus buds look down from a highly polished walled called a mirror wall.

These maidens wear blouses of gossamer veil, the texture of which are silken cobwebs woven in the wind, seven layers of this diaphanous material is like evening dew on grass and similar to running water.

These lovely maidens have dressed their hair piled up high to show their oval faces of lustrous complexions. They have heavy breasts and their eyes express moods from vivacity to serenity. They wear elaborate jewels on their hair, ears and arms. Large hooped earrings dangle from their ears and they wear armlets as well as bangles. Numerous necklaces, some having large pendants too are worn. They stand in a row carrying flowers, trays of flowers bestowing the most enigmatic of smiles.

Frescoes

They stand looking in one direction as if they are going to a nearby temple in Pinduragala. They are, of course, the renowned frescoes of a rock fortress, called Sigiriya, Lion mountain, found in the heart of Sri Lanka and existing since the 5th century. These maidens have been in their aerie heights of half way up a 180 meter rock face, through sixteen centuries. They have been painted on a mirror wall and now number only 21 out of a veritable 500.

At that time a rock face of about 150 meters in length would have formed one of the largest picture galleries of the world. Imagine looking at such a picture gallery from below. An array of colours on bewitching maidens would have certainly mesmerized the onlooker.

The mirror wall was thus named because of its highly glazed plaster which is believed to have been made up of a mixture of lime, plaster and egg white. This wall still reflects the face of the onlooker.

Sigiriya is an extraordinary site of a lofty rock of red gneiss rising up like a citadel, some 180m from the neighbouring plateau that has been inhabited since the 3rd century BC. This has been attested by the graffiti which proliferates in the grottoes and shelters of the boulders.

The fame of Sigiriya is mostly due to one factor, that is, during the 5th century, a flamboyant sovereign, King Kasyapa I, established his capital there. A king who had an immense aesthetic sense. Sigiriya is believed to be the symbolic reconstruction of Alakamanda, the mythical abode of the Hindu God Kuvera. It was built to resemble a crouching lion. Only a giant brick head and paws of the lion constructed at its northern end still remain to give measure to the original lion structure. It is through the lion’s throat, a stone staircase was constructed to ascend to the top.

Sigiriya is an architectural marvel and the best known example of ancient Sri Lanka’s civil engineering. Design architects have cleverly patterned a complex system of parks, ponds and pavilions with an excellent grasp of eco-design, taking into account the elements of nature. It is also with pride and amazement one can see the placements of different gardens by the then landscapists in three sets, the water gardens, the boulder gardens and the terraced gardens.

There were gardens on top of the rock as well as below, on the ground. An intricate irrigation system was discovered that watered the gardens , kept the ponds flushed at all levels and the fountains playing too.

The island Sri Lanka is proud of its long civilization which is rich and colourful. It occupied a pivotal position in the ancient Silk Road and functioned as a cultural highway between the East and the West. This gave the island a cosmopolitan character since pre-Christian times. The history of Sri Lankan painting and sculpture can be traced as far back as to the 2nd and 3rd century BC. The ancient chronicles have descriptions of paintings in the relic chambers of Buddhist stupas and monastic residences. Fragmentary remains of ancient wall paintings have been recorded from various archeological sites.

Sculpture

The stylistic features of ancient sculptures shed light on the formation of Sri Lankan classical style of sculpture and painting. The work of the mid historical period shows the persistence and continuity of this style throughout the period. Anuradhapura, an ancient city had its buildings, paintings and sculpture in this classical style. Early Sri Lankan paintings are found in the ruins of Mathyangana and Mihintale stupas as well as in Gonagala and Karambaglala.

Even though the Sigiriya frescoes can be located within the broad stylistic aspects of Anuradhapura period paintings it has its unique features in terms of lines and its application. The multiple sketchy lines of the Sigiriya frescoes impart an ambience of sketchiness and swiftness that established the sense of full volume in the shapes and forms of the figures by giving rise to a subtle spatial ambiguity at the edges of the painted forms. This brings about the sense of volume on a flat surface and is further confirmed by the way the paint has been applied.

The paint has been applied in sweeping strokes, imparting slightly more pressure on one side of a flat brush which has thus created a deeper colour tone along the edges of a shape. This has also resulted in leaving a high tone area on the shapes and forms of figures. This was a commonly used feature in the Anuradhapura style of paintings and can be seen in the frescoes of Mahiyangana and other temples. The main characteristic of the lines of Anuradhapura painting style, including that of later Polonnaruwa is that it is a sure and precise linear mark registered on the surface and also the last line of the artists.

In contrast, the sketchy and exploratory nature and their application in the Sigiriya lines make them distinctly different among the frescoes of the Anuradhapura period. These paintings of the Sigiriya frescoes represent the earliest surviving examples of a Sri Lankan school of classical realism, already fully evolved by the 5th century.

Reaction

Imagine how startled the viewer would have been when he espied these paintings on a ledge high up on the rock through a telescope from the forest ground below. That is exactly how a Buddhist scholar, T W Rhys Davids reacted when he saw this bevy of wall flowers. Though Sigiriya remained inaccessible after King Kasyapa’s time for centuries it was not forgotten, there was an especial flow of curious western visitors in early 19th century.

The mystery as to who painted the beautiful ladies went on and also how they were protected beneath an overhanging rock. Murray, an Englishman took on the arduous task of climbing the precarious rock in late 19th century and was successful of making drawings of these mysterious frescoes, also called apsaras. From then on, there was no stopping the archeologists and historians who cleared the jungle, excavated, dated and restored the intricate site much as they possibly could. Even at present, the work is going on. Now it is easily visited, seen, the summit is accessible and the marvelous sites of the palaces and gardens can be viewed with pleasure.

Exquisitely painted in brilliant colours the frescoes resemble the Ajanta paintings of India. Having no religious significance they are considered to be representations of the beauties of the King Kasyapa’s court. An inscription on the nearby mural wall alludes to ‘Five hundred golden ones’ but sadly at the time of rediscovery there were only twenty one of the frescoe paintings only. The dark ladies were referred to as cloud maidens and the light skinned ones as the lightning princesses. These figures look very sensuous and have aroused inflicting emotions in visitors down the years. A male admirer had scratched his verse as:

‘the ladies who wear golden chains on their breasts beckon me. Now I have seen these resplendent ladies, heaven has lost its appeal for me.’

A contemporary female, however, less enamoured with the frescoes records a different passionate emotion in:

Maiden

‘A deer eyed maiden of the mountain side arouses anger in my mind. In her hand she holds a string of pearls and in her eye she assumes rivalry with me.’

Greatly inspired by the Sigiriya beauties many viewers had inscribed verses to them on the walls below the mirror wall and walls of the caves below. These are known as Sigiriya Graffiti and are dated from the 6th century to the 14th. Nearly 700 of these have been deciphered and recorded. Such revealing comments of the paintings provide an insight to the cultivated sensibilities of the time and its appreciation of art and beauty.

At this same time, half way across the globe from Sri Lanka, in the Byzantine Empire that arose from the previous Roman times, mosaic art and icon art developed into a great style of Byzantine art. The finest work, the most elegant and accomplished technically, was naturally associated with the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, which was the hub of the civilized world. Byzantine art is the term used to describe the artistic products of this empire from the 5th century onwards. Byzantine art also flourished in the states which were contemporary with the Byzantine Empire and shared a common culture with it, without actually being part of it, such as Bulgaria, Serbia, Russia, Venice and the Kingdom of Sicily. The tradition of Byzantine art can be seen in Greece, Russia and other Eastern Orthodox countries in the present day.

A byzantine painting

The Byzantine area was the Eastern Roman empire. It was Emperor Constantine I who shifted his capital to Byzantium on the Bosphorous in the 4th century. Byzantium became Constantinople, ‘City of Constantine,’ and much later during the Ottoman Empire became the now Istanbul. This empire remained the most powerful economic, cultural and military force in Europe despite set-backs and territorial losses from various wars. The Byzantine Empire existed from the 4th century till 1453 when it was overpowered by the Ottoman Empire.

Byzantine art is the artistic products of the Byzantine Empire. Just as the Byzantine Empire represented the political continuation of the Roman Empire, Byzantine art developed from the art of the Roman Empire. It must be kept in mind that Roman art was greatly influenced by ancient Greek art. Thus Byzantine art never lost its identity with this classical heritage.

Therefore, Byzantine art grew from the art of Ancient Greece but was distinguished from it in a number of ways. The most prominent of these was that the Christian ethic replaced that of the humanist ethic of Ancient Greek art. If the purpose of classical art was the glorification of man, the purpose of Byzantine art was the glorification of God and his Son, Jesus. This had its consequences. Classical artistic tradition having nude figures was banished. Old pagan idols and motifs were taken over lock, stock and barrel. It is said that the disadvantage of this type of art was a decline in the importance of naturalistic representation of art and it also lost interest in realistic portraiture. Christian art became dominant with the figure of God the Father, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, the saints and the martyrs. It also replaced the classical preoccupation with the human body.

Icon

The most important form of Byzantine art, which is still dominant, was the Icon. An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly, a painting, more broadly used in a wide number of contexts for an image, picture or representation. In modern culture an icon is a symbol representing a face or picture. It is generally an image or depiction that represents something else of greater significance through literal and figurative meaning.

In the same vein, mosaic is the art that creates images with an assemblage of small pieces of coloured glass, stone, shells and ivory. These pieces are roughly cubic in shape and pasted to create a pattern or picture. In time, mosaic art preceded icon art. It must be mentioned that the famous Russian icon painting began by entirely adopting and imitating Byzantine art. So did the art of other orthodox nations. These have remained conservative although the painting style has developed distinct characters. For example, the depiction of the nativity of Christ, vary very little in content from the 6th century to the present.

New techniques were developed by the Byzantine artists to reach new heights. Byzantine gold and silversmith work, enamel work, jewelry, textiles and carpet weaving preserved their quality from then till now. In mosaics and icon painting they developed original art forms of their own. In architecture they achieved masterpieces such as Hagia Sophia church, a magnificent structure in the ancient world.

Influence

In truth, Byzantine art is not so easily encapsulated. Its distribution, artistic influence, and sources of inspiration extend well beyond the territorial boundaries of the Empire. Its roots can be traced in the pagan arts of Greco-Roman antiquity, and its legacy is clearly visible in the arts of the Italian and Northern Renaissance, medieval and modern Russia, and even of places far more remote in time and place, such as we see in the Byzantine revival architecture of London's Westminster Cathedral.

The Byzantine artists learned anew the classical conventions for depicting the clothed figure in which the drapery clings to the body of the figure, thus revealing the forms beneath. This was called the damp-old style. They also included modeling in light and shade which not only produced the illusion of three dimension but also animation to the painted surface.

As religious images did not allow the human figures as bodily presence, the artists cleverly used abstraction to overcome this problem. They did it by rendering the darks, halftones and lights as clearly differentiated patterns thus preserving the visual interest of the figure while avoiding any actual modeling and with it the semblance of corporeality. In this way the conventions for representing the human figure were established which remained for the later centuries of Byzantine art.

Mosaics

Great works of mosaics are found in major scale in the wall paintings of Coptic Egypt and the Balkans, the sculptures that decorate the tympana and facades of many churches in Armenia and Georgia. Actually, the wall space that was covered by mosaics and frescoes in the East Christian world has never been exceeded by, even Renaissance Italy. Most of these have perished with the ravage of time but still the surviving ones display high quality. These bring out the glory that once characterized Church Art.

Some such paintings can be seen in Museums of Istanbul, the Hagia Sophia and the Palermo Cathedral in Sicily. Special mention must be made of the Rila Monastery in the Rila Mountains of Bulgaria. The monastery consists of many large buildings of 10th century intricate architecture in Byzantine style. The church of the Holy Virgin is the central piece and has three identical domes.

Marble mosaics adorn the floor. As domes and altar areas of large churches tend to be in semi darkness, these domes were built to enable light to pierce through the drums of the domes. There is also light from individual windows that are placed at a lower level than the domes. The special effect that that the light coming in this way cause an aura in spotlighting the icons on the wall, that, it is with almost reverence that the viewers gaze and admire the paintings. Paintings cover every square inch of wall and ceiling space of the altar areas. In addition, the most fascinating frescoes are on the outside walls of the church. The brilliant colours and the scenes they depict in such a mass of paintings could get anyone’s head in a whirl. The individual stroke marks of many paintings can be discerned in the frescoes in the principal church but only one painter, Zograph, has signed and dated his.

It can be seen that there was Byzantine influence all over Europe and the world. Byzantine art that began in the 5th century has spurted the styles of art for many centuries thereafter and is still sought out and admired.

Castle

After seeing much Byzantine art work, it was almost dusk in Istanbul, when standing on a balcony overlooking the sea of Marmara, I admired a lit up castle like building when I saw a cloud formation descending. I gazed at it and what did I see? It was a sultan on a majestic flying horse and it flew over the buildings. Next, it turned and headed out to the sea towards a russet sailed galleon.

Then as it touched the highest mast, it rose in the air and became hazy. Craning my neck outwards and looking intently I saw a flock of geese flying away. Did Sinbad see such for his stories? Was this an effect of much Byzantine art or is this what an evening in mysterious Istanbul offers?

Well, all in all, an average painting, icon or mosaic can be elevated to an exquisite stand out image when it strikes a resonance with the viewer and engages the person on an emotional level. There is no doubt that the images like the Sigiriya frescoes and Byzantine paintings have the power to move and captivate anyone.

High evocative images capture the mood, ambience and location so tangibly that the images almost lift themselves up from their flat surfaces to acquire a three-dimensional quality. It is this quality that accomplished artists harness so excellently.

I wonder, in the 5th century and after, these skilled artists while at work, ever thought their work would evoke such admiration even many, many centuries later? Hats off to them, they certainly have left their mark for posterity.