A Marvel That Marble Creates

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An ordinary marble sheet has created by using a few basic colors in a pure and simple idiom of early Indian tradition of Ajanta Mural paintings, the portrait of a young lady, the marvel of beauty, who has in her eyes marble's purity and in her very being its soft touch and glow. The portrait is a brilliant attempt at discovering the face of India and the fragrance of her soil in a few strokes of brush, naive simplicity of coloring technique with no mixing, shading, manipulating, contrasting or even deliberate balancing and without an intricate line-work. The portrayal represents India's vision of beauty, which the coy maidenhood coupled with her age old tradition of 'shringara', the gorgeous but elegant wearing, elaborate bejeweling and emotional demeanor, defined. Marble has imparted to the figure its own complexion and has crystallized into her eyes the hopes and dreams of tomorrow. Under a simple but unique technique the artist, by using his figure's 'saree' and its border, first isolates from the face of the marble sheet an oval space where emerges, as if of its own, the face of his figure. A simple broad gold line contained within a couple of binding lines running on all four sides automatically converts the rest of the marble sheet into the background for his figure and the total sheet into a canvas. A little shading and simple line-work seem to apparently create the details of his figure's face but the life-like vigor and the hopes, dreams and apprehensions which twinkle out of her eyes are children of artist's own innovative genius. The artist discovers his figure and all its beauty with a few micro-sized stone and glass beads, narrow strips of metal foils and a few shades of magenta, black and blue and white paint laid and inlaid on the face of his stone chip.

Oval face tilted a little to right allowing her well defined neck greater exposure, sharp features, arched forehead, moderate sized but deep sensitive and fascinating eyes, slanting cheeks and receding chin, thick dark hair braided with beaded strings and shapely cute lips attribute to the portrayed figure exceptional beauty and grace. She is in traditional Indian attire and from 'benda' on her forehead to the pearl necklace on her bosom she is as much traditionally bejeweled. The portrait represents India's indigenous art style and her idea of female beauty.

This description by Prof. P.C. Jain and Dr Daljeet. Prof. Jain specializes on the aesthetics of literature and is the author of numerous books on Indian art and culture. Dr Daljeet is the curator of the Miniature Painting Gallery, National Museum, Delhi.