The Government Museum at Egmore, which has a good collection of mica paintings, has made them a part of its weekly exhibition.
Mica paintings, which are quite similar to glass paintings, were popularised in India in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Painting on mica was practised mainly in Tiruchy, but is found to be unique in the architecture of Thanjavur.
However, mica paintings started flourishing as a trade in Thanjavur as the painters could have shifted base there, museum experts believe.
This medium was also borrowed from North India, where there were flourishing schools of mica paintings at Patna, Murshidabad and Banaras.
The most popular subject matter for these paintings used to be gods, goddesses, Hindu religious rituals and festivals. Sometimes, even flora and fauna were used as subjects.
These paintings were rather small in size due to the fact that only small sheets of the material were available.
The reason for its popularity was the fact that mica was just as transparent as glass. This transparency was the result of the heat and pressure created between layers of hard rock during its creation.
This week’s exhibit ‘Vayu seated on a Deer’ is from the Tanjore School of Paintings. It depicts the Wind God, with two pairs of arms, sitting on a deer and adorned with various ornaments.
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