Apabhramsa School of Art
This school traces its origin to Gujarat and
Mewar region in Rajasthan. It was the predominant school of painting in western
India during 11th to 15th century. The common themes of these paintings were
Jain and in the later period the Vaishanava School appropriated them too. They
brought in the concept of Gita Govinda and secular love into these paintings
that were otherwise dominated by the Jain iconography.
In the early Jain phase, the paintings were
made on Palm leaf but in the later period they were made on paper. Even though
the paintings were made as illustrations for books, they did not develop a
different style but were mural paintings in a reduced dimension. The colours
used in the paintings had symbolic meaning and they usually used red, yellow
and ochre. In the later phase, they used bright and gold colours.
Furthermore,
the features of the human figures depicted
in the paintings have fish-shaped bulging eyes; a pointed nose and a double
chin. They tried to begin the trend to make angular faces in the third and
fourth profile• They figures are usually stiff and even the ornamentation is
carefully done. The female figurines have enlarged hips and breasts. The animal
and bird figurines in the paintings are represented as toys. The most famous
example is of Kalpasutra and the Kalakacharya Katha from 15th century.
