Description of the attraction
The National Art Gallery of "the most Indian city in the world" Madras (Chennai) is a kind of center of the cultural life of this city. It contains a large collection of sculptures and paintings created by Indian and British artists from different times.
The building that currently houses the gallery was built in 1907 and was originally planned to house the Victoria Memorial and the Technical Institute, but was converted into an Art Gallery in 1951. It is itself a work of art of amazing beauty - built of red sandstone in the Indo-Saracen style and is replete with a mass of decorative elements and ornaments in the form of turrets, domes, carved borders, stucco moldings, columns and arches.
The gallery presents a rich collection of bronze statues dating from the X-XIII centuries, paintings from the times of the Great Mughals (XVI-XVIII centuries), as well as a variety of handicrafts: jewelry, toys, created by Indian craftsmen of the XI-XII centuries. In general, the gallery is divided into numismatic, geological, anthropological, botanical and zoological sections.
In the section reserved for bronze sculptures, you can see wonderful figurines depicting the dancing god Shiva and his wife goddess Parvati, as well as Krishna in various images described in myths. Some of these exhibits are truly unique and valuable. As well as the engravings presented in the gallery by Briton Thomas Daniels, which allow the viewer to look at India from the inside, as it were. In addition, the gallery is famous for its miniature portraits of the great Indian rulers Akbar and Jahangir.
All of these treasures at the National Gallery of Art can be viewed daily, except Friday and public holidays.
