Bengal School Renaissance

The Bengal Renaissance refers to a social reform movement during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the Bengal region of India during the period of British rule. The Bengal renaissance can be said to have started with Raja Ram Mohan Roy(1772– 1833) and ended with Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941). The word renaissance (Rinascimento in Itlalian) meansre-birth or revitalism

In Bengal, a new group of nationalist artists gathered around Abinandranatha Tagore ( ). Abanindranath Tagore was a nephew of Rabindranath Tagore. This new group of painters rejected the art of Raja Ravi Varma as imitative and westernized. They declared that such a style was unsuitable for depicting the nation’s ancient myths and legends. This group felt that a genuine Indian style of painting must draw the inspiration from the non- western art tradition and should try to capture the spiritual essence of the East. So, these artists started doing experiments. They did the following things: They broke away from the tradition of oil painting They broke away from the realistic style of Raja Ravi Varma and company artists The turned to the inspiration to medieval Indian traditions of the miniature paintings and ancient art of mural paintings in Ajanta Caves. The paintings of Ajanta and Bagh, Mogul, Rajput and Pahari miniatures provided the models. The continuity of earlier traditions was sought to be maintained by borrowing from legends and classical literature like the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, Gita, and Puranas, the writings of Kalidasa and Omar Khayyam.

Salient Features of the Bengal School of Art Bengal school in painting was called the Renaissance School as well as the Revivalist School because this movement endeavoured for revival of the Indian ancient and medieval traditions. However, it is sometimes criticised because it took art back to the subject matter of ancient periods in an imitative manner without much creativity. The paintings were Simple and standard paintings with attractive colour scheme technique. Bright colours were not used in such paintings. The Bengal painters have made best possible efforts to bring in the rhythm, linear gracefulness and poise of Ajanta in their painting. Influence of Mughal and Rajasthan School can also be seen. Elegant and refined figures and the paintings exhibited skilfully exposed light and shade without any hardness.

Prominent artists of Bengal school of art EB Havell Abanindranath Tagore Nandalal Bose Gaganendranath Tagore Asit Kumar Haldar Jamini Roy Ramkinkar Baij Rabindranath Tagore

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