Raja Ravi varma's paintings

Towards the end of the 19th century, when there was a lack of vitality in Indian painting, he was one of the few artists who re-introduced Indian subjects in his works. Raja Ravi Varma is often criticised for the fact that his paintings overshadowed the traditional art forms because of their widespread reproduction as oleographs, flooding the society with his form of myth, portrayed with static realism (Dasgupta).

By dispensing with abstraction in favour of stiff academicism, Ravi Varma can be considered as having in one stroke undermined the traditional art, which was both dynamic and rich in form and content. One can find an illustration of this argument in the figures of Durga in West Bengal or in the folk form of Madhubani Paintings.

In comparison, Ravi Varma's approach clearly lacks this dynamism of expression. Moreover, his approach of frontality has severe limitations in terms of space and movement. By rejecting the traditional models of representation (for example, Chitrasutra is the treatise on art outlined in Vishnudharmottara Purana), he has reduced myth to the level of ordinary humans, a form that has been copied in all depictions of myth on other mediums such as cinema and television (Dasgupta). Dadasaheb Phalke, considered the father of Indian cinema, is thought to have been influenced by Ravi Varma's static realism (Dasgupta).