INAUGURATION OF ORIENTAL SCENERY, YESTERDAY AND TODAY AT IGNCA

Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, Ministry of Culture, Victoria Memorial Hall and Italian Embassy joined ANTONIO MARTINELL renowned lens man and curator, Dr. ANGELA TREZZA from the ITALIAN EMBASSY, CHITTRANJAN PANDA ,Victoria memorial hall, Kolkata, VB PYARELAL Joint Secretary IGNCA and ARCHANA KHARE, HOD IGNCA inaugurated the exhibhition ORIENTAL SCENERY today and had also organised a PRESS CONFERENCE ON the same , the exotically juxtaposed exhibition of paintings and photographs depicting the India of 200 years.India of the late eighteenth Century, with its palaces, cities, forts, landscapes and places of worship traced in the late twentieth century through the same places with the same points of view to discover what has changed and what has remained unchanged in a span of two hundred years. Influenced by the Daniells, two hundred years later, Antonio Martinelli travelled across India and successfully captured the places and sites once visualized and painted by them.

INAUGRATION by Antonio Martinelli, Kumari Selja, Ministry of Culture, Jawahar Sarkar secretary of culture, Chinmay R.Garekhan President IGNCA and the Italian Ambasaador H.E.GIACOMO SANFELICE DI MONTEFORTE at 5.30pm; 31st March 2011

HIGHLIGHTS OF EXHIBITION
Aquatints by Thomas and William Daniell
Original idea, curatorial expertise and photographs by Antonio Martinelli
The 73 18th century aquatints of Thomas and William Daniell, accompanied in their mirror image by the photographs of Antonio Martinelli, both in possession of the Victoria Memorial Hall of Kolkata will be exhibited during the 3 month long exhibition. Which were also exhibited in Europe at the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome and at the Conciergerie in Paris under the patronage of UNESCO. Antonio Martinelli, with his artistic flair, has succumbed to the magic of the Daniells. In order to reproduce the same views which thrilled the Daniells, he has visited the same places which they visited and reproduced the same views where possible, but in another medium, photography. The skill and artistry involved in this project necessitated much the same expertise, hard work and dedication as was exhibited by Thomas and William over 200 years ago. This exhibition is of enormous interest and importance and Martinelli's work will endure in the same way that 'Oriental Scenery' has.Apart from Mr. Martinelli, this exhibition owes much to the Dept. of Culture, Ministry of Tourism & Culture, Govt. of India, Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata, Italian Embassy Cultural Centre and the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi.
HIGHLIGHTS
The aquatints juxtaposed to the photographs, comprise a rare documentation, useful for recreating the original perspective of the natural and architectural patrimony of India, offering a base for reflecting on the state of their conservation and on the changes that these places and structures have undergone. Antonio Martinelli

India's heritage sites and monuments have reached the end of 20th century in good shape, well almost. Astonishing, for, by the accounts of NGOs and environmentalists, most of them need help. But the juxtaposition of 200-year-old aquatints of many a monument with their recent photographs speaks alot about the survival of our cultural and topographic heritage.

The exhibition Oriental Scenery: Yesterday & Today at the Victoria Memorial Hall, presents the works of Englishmen Thomas and William Daniell in the 18th century along with matching photographs by Italian photographer Antonio Martinelli.

ASI and UNESCO protected monuments as well as others that run the risk of being destroyed due to modernization or lack of protection feature amongst the aquatints of the Daniells and photographs of Martinelli. For this reason, Antonio Martinelli hopes that the exhibition in its double role of past and present, serves as a caution for the threat that the natural and architectural patrimony of India faces today.The exhibition pans the North East of the Indian subcontinent with 42 aquatints and their modern versions in photographs, the South with 20 aquatints and 20 photographs and the West with 11 aquatints and their modern photographic adaptations.
Antonio Martinelli, a renowned Italian Photographer and Indophile, has made significant contribution to photo-history with the publication of his book 'Oriental Scenery' (Delhi, 1998). His survey has served a sobering reminder of the fragility of our cultural heritage sites. Influenced by the Daniell, two hundred years later, Antonio Martinelli travelled across India and successfully captured the places and sites once visualized and painted by the Daniell. The descriptions and contrast envisaged in this exhibition provide a warning to all those who care for conservation of cultural property. It is for the viewers to share the lyrical nuances.
Historical perspective:Thomas Daniell R.A. (1749-1840) and William Daniell R.A. (1769-1837) have been described as artists and travellers. But they were much more than that. They were explorers and adventurers also. They combined artistic talent with dogged endurance, determination, and character, and travelled the innermost parts of virtually unknown eighteenth century India from 1786 to 1793.They observed with painters' eyes the exciting vision of Mughal and Dravidian antiquities and the rural life around them, and recorded them with skill, accuracy and charm. William kept a diary, and this, combined with annotated pencil drawings, colour wash, watercolours, and oil paint, gives us a picture of their abundant talent in a very beautiful country. It was on their return to London that they produced a wonderfully complete graphic record of their journeys in India. Over a period of several years (1795 to 1808) 'Oriental Scenery', a series of 144 aquatints, was produced. This has delighted us ever since, especially those of us who love India. The Victoria Memorial Hall has a wonderful collection of oil paintings by the two Daniell, the most important that there is anywhere; and it also includes their work in other media, and of course 'Oriental Scenery' which this exhibition is about.
IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF INDIA’S FIRST GREAT REPORTERS
My first acquaintance with Thomas and William Daniells, was in the 1980s when an Indian friend, Princess Naheed Mazharuddin Khan of Surat, showed me Mildred Archer's book 'Early Views of India' dedicated to the aquatints produced by these two artists some 200 years ago. Some time later I had the chance to look closely at the original 144 aquatints of their 'Oriental Scenery' in the India Office Library in London. The impact that these hand-coloured prints had upon me was profound: I was totally fascinated by their magical, yet startlingly realistic images of India. When I learned that the Daniells framed their landscapes and monuments with the help of an artistic device known as the camera obscura, it made their work comprehensible to me since in many respects it appeared to anticipate photography.

The Daniell spent almost nine years travelling throughout India and a further twelve years to publish the fruits of their travels. Two centuries later, aided by marked improvements in transport, it still took me almost two years to find the correct sites and precise locations of each of the Daniells' views, a journey which took me into territories, which are still not easily accessible. The small boat on which the Daniell set sail from Calcutta served them a dual purpose: a safe means of transport and accommodation during most of their trip up the Ganga route. Food and shelter were thus more or less guaranteed, quite unlike in my experience. The Daniell could stop and camp wherever they liked, while I was forced to look for a safe room for my night halts where meals were not always available. I decided it was wiser to travel by car and was extremely lucky in finding an excellent driver in Delhi, Surender Singh, who also became my interpreter. A young man from Garwhal served as an assistant and helped carry the heavy photographic bag. These two persons, replaced by a similar team in South India, became my companions, friends, helpers and support for many months. What a small team in comparison with the Daniell who travelled in great comfort and a much grander style: 2 boats and 7 retainers in North India; 48 servants in the South!

Much research at the India Office Library (British Library) in London, the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, and the Victoria Memorial in Calcutta was required to identify and locate each of the Daniells' views. However, several problems were only solved 'in the field', with the help, on one occasion, of an aged Indian historian who had retired to the Garwhal mountains, on another of a shepherd from a nearby village. But if the identification of forgotten ruins seemed possible, was it reasonable to expect to locate some 200 years later an actual landscape, a profile of a mountain, or a bend in a river? Even if the present exhibition does not show all of the matching documentary photographic work of my 144 views of the 'Oriental Scenery' not more than ten in the end escaped my investigation.

This was either because the monument had totally vanished, or because it had been so radically transformed that it was no longer recognisable. One by one the aquatints divulged their secrets, but sometimes only after many days of walking along the bed of a mountain stream, carefully approaching the side of a mountain or the turn of a road. The results are striking. Eighteenth-century India is still partly to be discovered, like the enchanted place of a timeless land, barely masked by some 200 hundred years of development.

The photographs reveal the great precision of these artists, but they also show missing or additional elements, sometimes even voluntary mistakes. While the Daniell used the camera obscura in order to ensure correct perspectives, shadows and light conditions they sometimes took liberties to enhance their compositions. I discovered that the Daniell often added, removed or even replaced elements. The new photographic record and the comparison with the aquatints, reveal astonishingly that India's heritage sites and monuments depicted in the Daniell's views have reached the end of the twentieth century almost in good conditions. The visual record shows both the sites under the protection of the Archaeological Survey of India, and the other monuments which has been declared World's Heritage by UNESCO, as well as the remaining vestiges which, lacking adequate care and protection, are facing a real danger of destruction due to the growth and expansion of modern India.

At a glance is an extraordinary graphic account of what happened in India in the past 200 years. Martinelli, between 1995 and 1997, conceived and realised an ambitious personal project of tracking the footsteps of the uncle-nephew team to come up with this exhibition and a book 'Oriental Scenery: Two hundred years of India's artistic and architectural heritage" a book which was released last year in New Delhi by Timeless Books.Inspired by Mildred Archer's book “Early Views of India” on Daniell aquatints and the originals at India Office Library, London, Martinelli decided to capture the startlingly realistic images of India with his camera, for which he acquired UNESCO's patronage.

The works of the Daniell took years of non-stop sketching and detailing and back to England to do the aquatints (engravings). Light, shade, perspective and precision with which Daniell handled their subjects anticipated photography also because of the instrument they used: camera obscura.

Thus started the journey- a voyage through space and time, Martinelli's photographs had to try and match as closely as possible the originals. Like Daniell masterpieces, Martinelli wanted his works to serve as reference 200 years down the line. And this was all done within two years. Whereas the Daniell spent nine years travelling and 12 years in publishing the fruits of their travels, this was when the artists had a crew of almost 50 people to help them. On the other hand, with the help of two people, Martinelli located the sites within only two years. This took him to territories some of which are still not accessible and are probably not even till date on guide maps. In research help from the British Library in London, the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and the Victoria Memorial Hall in Calcutta, George Michell, an international authority on Indian art and architecture and the co-author of the Oriental Scenery book assisted Martinelli.

Though the exhibition illustrates a tumultuous history, it also demonstrates the country's unique capacity to preserve in its folds shreds of its distant past. But the photographs also show that the legacy is facing a real danger of destruction due to growth and expansion of modern India. And if necessary steps are not taken, they will not be able to survive the next 200 years.