Art and artefacts

THE CHENNAI Government Museum, is joining the famous museums of the world, in providing more information material to the average visitor, and thus reach out to a wider audience. There is a new impetus to bringing out bi-annual journal, bulletins and books of well-researched and definitive works.

To enable the public to `discover' itself, the Museum has planned to publish two revised brochures, one relating to all its facets, and another focussing on paintings on the National Art Gallery and the Contemporary Art Gallery.

Started in 1851, the Chennai Museum has the largest collections of objects and antiquities in the country next to Indian Museum, Kolkata. The collections, numbering nearly 2,000, represent history, art, culture, flora and fauna, and ethnography of south India.

The proposed brochure, giving the overall picture of the Museum, mentions about the Hindu sculpture, Amaravati (Buddhist) and Jain galleries, which, among others, display the entire range of Hindu iconography, sculptures of Hindu gods and goddesses from the Pallava period (7th century A.D) to the modern era (19th century), Buddhist sculptures from the Stupa at Amaravati (Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh).

It also talks of the collections at the anthropology section which includes a few Indus Valley specimens and large collection of Iron Age pottery, iron tools, bronze utensils and gold ornaments excavated in Tirunelveli and the erstwhile Chengalpattu districts.

Another pamphlet, on the art section, mentions that a fibre optic lighting arrangement has been installed to illuminate canvas paintings of Raja Ravi Varma and others at the National Art Gallery. Also, a new track lighting system with Dichroic Halogen lamps has been provided at the Contemporary Art Gallery.

References to Moghul miniatures are made with a historical perspective and the genesis of Rajasthani miniatures is captured briefly.

Both the brochures, written in simple language, carry the floor plans of different galleries. They will be available to the public shortly.

By T. Ramakrishnan

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