The Changing World of Visual Arts Extra Questions Class 8 History
The Changing world of Visual Arts Extra Questions for Class 8 History is help you in understanding the chapter in well manner and scoring high marks in the exams. Class 8 Extra Questions will be very helpful in encouraging students to learn new topics.
The Changing World of Visual Arts Very Short Answer Questions (VSAQs):
1. Mention one feature of oil painting.
Answer
Oil painting enables artists to produce images that looked real.
2. What were the three categories of Imperial Art?
Answer
‘The Imperial Art’ that was prevalent in India during the British Colonial rule can be classified into three categories, namely Landscape painting, Portrait painting and History painting.
3. How did the picturesque style of painting depict India?
Answer
Picturesque style of painting depicted India as a quaint law, to be explored by travelling British artists, its landscape was rugged and wild and seemingly untamed by human hands.
4. Name the technique with which Indian artists were not very familiar.
Answer
Oil painting.
5. What was the theme of Raja Ravi Varma's paintings?
Answer
The theme of his paintings was based on Indian mythology. He dramatised on canvas scene after scene from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
6. In what way were colonial portraits different from those of existing Indian tradition of painting portraits?
Answer
Unlike the existing Indian tradition of painting portraits in miniature, colonial portrait were life-size images that looked life-like and real.
7. How did the figures in scroll painting look?
Answer
The figures in scroll paintings looked flat, not rounded.
8. What subjects did European artists in India choose to paint?
Answer
Their paintings emphasised the superiority of Britain its culture, its people, its power.
9. When was the Calcutta Art Studio established? What it produce?
Answer
The Calcutta Art Studio was established in the late-nineteenth century. It produced life-like images of eminent Bengali personalities as well as mythological pictures.
10. Name the two traditions of Imperial art that became very popular in colonial India.
Answer
Picturesque landscape painting and Portrait painting.
The Changing World of Visual Arts Short Answer Questions (SAQs):
1. What were the reasons that forced the scroll painters and potters to come to Kalighat?
Answer
There were several reasons behind this:
• The city was expanding as a commercial and administrative centre at this time.
• Colonial offices were coming up, new buildings and roads were being built, markets were being established.
• The city appeared as a place of opportunity where people could come to make a new living. Scroll painters and potters too came and settled in the city in the hope of new patrons and new buyers of their art.
2. What are miniature paintings?
Answer
Miniature paintings are executed on a very small scale on perishable material such as paper and cloth. The Palas of Bengal were the pioneers of miniature painting in India. The art of miniature painting reached its glory during the Mughal period. The tradition of miniature paintings was carried forward by the painters of different Rajasthani schools.
3. What were Company Paintings?
Answer
During the 18th and 19th centuries, the British employed Indian artists to illustrate the manners and customs of India and to record scenes of monuments, deities, festivals, and occupations. These works later became known as ‘Company paintings’ because they were created by Indian artists employed by members of the British East India Company.
4. Describe European artist’s style.
Answer
The paintings done by European Artists were realistic. They painted pictures that were exactly the same in reality. The paintings looked real and lifelike. European artists introduced the technique of oil painting which was unknown to the Indian artists. Oil paintings allow artists to produce pictures that looked real. The paintings done by European Artists highlighted the culture, the power and the people of Britain.
5. Mention the themes on which the Kalighat artists of the late-nineteenth century painted.
Answer
Many of the late-nineteenth century Kalighat paintings depicted social life under British rule. Often the artists mocked at the changes they saw around, ridiculing the new tastes of those who spoke in English and adopted western habits, dressed like sahibs, smoked cigarettes, or sat on chairs. They made fun of the westernised baboo, criticised the corrupt priests and warned against women moving out of their homes. They often expressed the anger of common people against the rich, and the fear many people had about dramatic changes of social norms.
6. Describe the paintings done by Robert Ker Porter on the battle of Seringapatam.
Answer
The celebration of British military triumph can be seen in the paintings of the battle of Seringapatam by Robert Ker Porter. This work depicts “the decisive victory of the British in their series of campaigns to seize control of southern India.
In these pictures the British troops are shown storming the fort from all sides, cutting Tipu’s soldiers to pieces, climbing the walls, raising the British flag aloft on the ramparts of Tipu’s fort. The paintings are full of action and energy. The painting dramatises the event and glorifies the British triumph.
The Changing World of Visual Arts Long Answer Questions (LAQs):
1. Give a brief sketch of Thomas Daniell and his paintings.
Answer
• Thomas Daniell began his career as a landscape painter. In 1784 he came to India with his nephew William. They both remained in India for seven years. Together they executed a number of major works in engraving, oils and watercolours.
• The large oil paintings on canvas, done by them, were regularly exhibited to select audiences in Britain. Their albums of engravings were bought up by the British who wanted to know about Britain’s Empire.
• ‘Oriental Scenery’ is the title given to the monumental six-volume work of 144 hand-coloured engravings made by Thomas Daniell and his nephew William.
• The paintings by Thomas Daniell showed the ruins of local buildings that were once grand. The paintings seemed to reveal that India would change and modernise only through British governance.
• The idea of British rule bringing modern civilisation to India is powerfully emphasised in the numerous pictures of late-eighteenth-century Calcutta drawn by the Daniels.
2. How did the painters at Indian courts react to the new traditions of imperial art?
Answer
With the establishment of British power many of the local courts lost their influence and wealth. They could no longer support painters and pay them to paint for the court. As a result, many of the artists turned to the British. At the same time, British officials, who found the world in the colonies different from that back home, wanted images through which they could understand India, remember their life in Indian and depict India to the western world. So, these officials employed local painters to produce a vast number of images of local plants and animals, historical buildings and monuments, festivals and processions, trades and crafts, castes and communities.