Fwd: [Ind-Arch] Oil painting 'originated in East'

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[ind-Arch] Oil painting 'originated in East'IndiaArchaeology <IndiaArchaeology >

 

 

 

 

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7361994.stm

 

Tuesday, 22 April 2008

 

Oil painting 'originated in East'

By Vincent Dowd

BBC News

 

Painting with oils was taking place in what is now Afghanistan centuries

before such techniques were known to Europeans, researchers say.

 

French-based scientists have been investigating cave paintings at the

ancient complex of Bamiyan.

 

Until 2001 two vast 6th-Century Buddhas stood at Bamiyan. Then they were

blown up by Afghanistan's then-Taleban government as un-Islamic.

 

Behind the Buddhas was a network of caves in which monks lived and prayed.

 

Now a team from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble has

painstakingly analysed the ancient paintings in those caves.

 

They say that in 12 caves 7th-Century wall-paintings were created using oil

paint, derived possibly from walnuts or the poppies which grew in the area.

 

It is believed oil painting in Europe began only some six centuries after

this. The findings suggest these may be the oldest known examples anywhere

of painting with oil.

 

Lessons from Bamiyan

 

The wall-paintings were devotional art showing the Buddha, often in

colourful robes.

 

Probably the work was carried out by itinerant artists travelling the Silk

Road, the ancient trade route between China and the West.

 

There are plans to reconstitute the Bamiyan Buddhas - work which everyone

acknowledges would be tremendously difficult.

 

But even without their presence, Bamiyan has much to tell the world about an

era of art which is still little understood.

 

 

 

 

-- Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within the reach of every hand.~:~ Mother Theresa ~:~