NCERT Solutions Class 8 Social Science Chapter 10 The Changing World of Visual Arts

Let’s recall

1. Fill in the blanks:

(a) The art form which observed carefully and tried to capture exactly what the eye saw is called realism.

(b) The style of painting which showed Indian landscape as a quaint, unexplored land is called picturesque.

(c) Paintings which showed the social lives of Europeans in India are called Company paintings.

(d) Paintings which depicted scenes from British imperial history and their victories are called “history painting”.

2. Point out which of the following were brought in with British art:

(a) oil painting (b) miniatures (c) life-size portrait painting (d) use of perspective (e) mural art

(a) Oil painting, (c) life-size portrait painting and (d) use of perspective.

3. Describe in your own words one painting from this chapter which suggests that the British were more powerful than Indians. How does the artist depict this?

Answer:

(i)The oil painting titled The discovery of the body of Sultan Tipu by General Sir David Baird, 4 May 1799, painted by David Wilkie in 1839 suggests that the British were more powerful than Indians.

(iii)The lantern lights up Baird, making him visible to the spectator.

(iv)Tipu lies dead (left corner), his body hidden in semi- darkness. His forces are defeated, his royal clothes torn and stripped off.

(v)The painting seems to announce: this is the fate of those who dare to oppose the British.

4. Why did the scroll painters and potters come to Kalighat? Why did they begin to paint new themes? Answer:

(i)In Bengal, around the temple of Kalighat in Calcutta, local village scroll painters (called patuas) and potters (called kumors in eastern India and kumhars in north India) developed a new style of art.

(ii) In the early nineteenth century, the city was emerging as a vibrant commercial and administrative centre.

(iii)Colonial offices, new buildings, roads and markets were being established; the city offered many opportunities for people.

(v)Before the nineteenth century, the village patuas and kumors painted mythological themes and images of gods and goddesses. After the 1840s, a new trend within the Kalighat Artists emerged.

(vi)Their paintings depicted rapid changes in the society’s values, tastes, social norms and customs; they produced paintings on social and political themes.

(vii)Many of the late-nineteenth-century Kalighat paintings depicted social life under British rule.

(viii)Often the artists mocked at the social changes and ridiculed the new tastes of those who spoke in English and adopted Western habits, dressed like sahibs, smoked cigarettes, or sat on chairs.

(ix)They made fun of the westernised baboo, criticised the corrupt priests, and warned against women moving out of their homes.

(x)They often expressed the anger of common people against the rich, and the fear many people had about dramatic changes of social norms.

5. Why can we think of Raja Ravi Varma’s paintings as national?

Answer:

(ii)He was an expert in the Western art of oil painting and realistic life study, but painted themes from Indian mythology.

(iii)He dramatised on canvas, scene after scene from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, drawing on the theatrical performances of mythological stories.

(iv)From the 1880s, his mythological paintings became the rage among Indian princes and art collectors, who filled their palace galleries with his works.

(v) His paintings which dealt with the themes of the ancient Indian culture can be considered as national in expression.

Let’s discuss

6. In what way did the British history paintings in India reflect the attitudes of imperial conquerors? Answer:

(i)The category of imperial art, called “history painting” sought to dramatise and recreate various episodes of British imperial history.

(iii)British victories in India served as rich material for history painters in Britain.

(iv)These painters drew on firsthand sketches and accounts of travellers to depict for the British public a favourable image of British actions in India.

(v)These paintings once again celebrated the British: their power, their victories, and their supremacy.

7. Why do you think some artists wanted to develop a national style of art?

Answer:

(i)In Bengal, a new group of nationalist artists inspired by Abanindranath Tagore rejected the art of Ravi Varma as imitative and westernised.

(ii)They declared that such a style was unsuitable for depicting the nation’s ancient myths and legends.

(iii)They felt that a genuine Indian style of painting had to draw inspiration from non-Western art traditions, and try to capture the spiritual essence of the East.

(iv)So they broke away from the convention of oil painting and the realistic style, and turned for inspiration to medieval Indian traditions of miniature painting and the ancient art of mural painting in the Ajanta caves.