Mythological Stories by Ravi Varma

A recurring theme in Ravi Varma's works, Krishna is portrayed at different intervals in his life: as a child with Yashoda, as Radha's beloved and as the Lord in the great war between good and evil in the Mahabharata.

Krishna's childhood phase leads to the romantic period with Radha. This is the carefree interval in Krishna's life. Ravi Varma captures the youthful dalliance between Radha and Krishna in a series of works.

Ravi Varma was highly conscious of the varied skin tones of people; from the light to the very dark. There is subtlety in the dark skin that Indian aesthetics recognise. 

This is applicable to the romanticism attached to Krishna's dark skin. the god who is also known as "Shyam", endowed with the same hue of the evening turning into night.

Many of Ravi Varma's mythological paintings conceal the drama and emotion of a narrative because of the dark coating of dust, varnish and overpaint.

During restoration of King Aja's Lament, stunning detail post cleaning revealed one eye brimming with tears, disclosing the poignancy of the moment; the complete bewilderment and the trauma of the sudden death of his beloved wife.

For Ravi Varma it was essential to embellish the visual narrative in a manner that would make the painting rich, complex and sensual. This painting was first displayed at the Madras Fines Arts Exhibition in 1903. 

In a Puranic painting Ravi Varma depicts a historic moment from an epic or a classical text, which is intended to be noble, momentous and emotional. For the painting to be justified the choice of scene had to be unforgettable within a particular narrative.

The scene he painted had to invariably lead to a series of repercussions and consequences. It was only with such qualities that it became worthy to be painted.

This hiatus in the narrative that he selected - of dramatic characters and sweeping gestures - was also very often the one that permeated into the Indian psyche over the many long centuries that these epics have been in existance.