The Colas c35.s2.4

c35.s2.4

In Tanjore, as elsewhere, the coat of fine plaster seems to have been laid when the coarse plaster below was still wet. The painting (in true fresco method) was also applied when the surface was still wet. In this process the pigment penetrates the surface, and soon, the wet calcium hydroxide in the lime, as the water-content evaporates, reacts with the carbon dioxide of the air forming a thin protective and transparent film over the surface. The same thing happens even where the pigments are laid in lime medium on the dry surface; though there is no penetration of the pigment, the glassy protective film is still there. This is the merit of the fresco process. In Tanjore old and well-slaked lime burnt over a wood fire and derived perhaps from shell or lime-stone seems to have been used; no marble dust has been found in analysis. The pigments with the exception of black are found to be of mineral origin, the principal colours used being black, yellow, brown, red, blue, green, yellowish green and light blue; the materials employed are lime for white, wood charcoal or lamp black for black, ultra-marine for blue, toned down with lime or fine sand for light blue, ochres for yellow, brown and red, terreverte for green, ultramarine and yellow ochre for yellowish green, ultramarine and terreverte for bluish green. The technique employed has restricted the palette to material which will not react and change when mixed with lime—a limitation of the fresco process. Since again in the fresco all the pigments dry out lighter and that gradually in a few week's time, the artist must have a good idea of the relative warmth of the tones to be ultimately expected. The Tanjore artists have understood this so well as to achieve a fine harmony of colour. In some places the colour films do not adhere so firmly as in general they do, and here the pigments seem to have been applied in lime medium. Apparently the paintings were begun in fresco, and were finished or retouched in lime medium. True fresco work demands greater swiftness and precision of execution than the lime medium technique. This means the execution of the work panel by panel and the careful jointing of the panels to match in tone and colour. In the Cōḷa frescoes at Tanjore the joints are so well concealed that it is not quite possible to estimate the rate at which the painting was done and the area covered by an artist in a day. The plaster coats are so thin that they could not have retained their moisture for more than a very short time. The artists seem to have completed one wall per day or during such time as it remained wet, in which case no joint would be visible. This would not have been impossible, since the wall is conveniently divided into horizontal panels by patches of colours and each panel may have been worked by a single artist or a group. As a matter of fact the themes are made up of many small scenes on each panel; each scene may have been painted by one artist, a number of them working simultaneously. The area of the panels varies from 24 square feet to 60. It is not also impossible that the joints are concealed by the horizontal patches of colour. To put in so much detail of dress and ornament, and to achieve so much general decorative effect even in the disposition of the figures under such limitations of time as the fresco process imposed required great skill of the artists indeed.