Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c9.s6: Green Pigments
Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c9.s6
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Green Pigments
c9.s6.1
White, black, red, blue yellow are only basic colours, according to Sanskrit texts. The rest of the colour shades were obtained by admixtures. Thus green has not been mentioned as a separate colour; its various shades were obtained by the careful admixtures of blue, yellow, white, etc. Terraverte green, however, was known as a separate colour to the painters of Cave No. XVI at Ajaṇṭā and Ellura⁴².
c9.s6.2
⁴² Paramasivan, Technique of the painting process in the Cave Temple at Ajaṇṭā, Ann. Rep. Arch. Dept. of H. E. H. Nizam's Dominions, 1939, p. 29; Technique of the Painting Process in the Cave Temple at Ellura, Ib., p. 38.
c9.s6.3
Green was used in palm-leaf painting not as a separate colour, its shades being obtained by admixtures. After the 14th century, however, several greens seem to have been added to the palette of the painters.
c9.s6.4
Terraverte.—The different varieties of green earth yielded rather a dull transparent green soapy in texture. Terraverte is specially used in the 17th century painting, to represent green foreground. However, as already observed, its use was known as early as the 7th century.
c9.s6.5
Harābhāṭā or harāḍhābā seems to have been malachite green. This mineral occurs in several modifications in nature, some pale, others bright grassy green; some are very hard and stony, and some better suited to colouring, rather friable. Speaking from the geological point of view, azurite is a parent, and the malachite usually represents a changed form of the original blue deposit. The colour is pale, bright, opaque and crystalline. It was extensively used to depict grassy fields, mounds, etc.
c9.s6.6
*Zangal*.—Verdigris became a favourite green with the painters in the 15th century and later. It is an acetate of copper prepared by treating pieces of copper with vinegar. Verdigris is an excellent green very pleasing to the eyes when fresh, but after sometime it is darkened and black spots appear. Moreover, its effect on paper is disastrous. The parts on which it is applied become so fragile in course of time that a little mishandling makes the paper crumble.