Style combination · Contrasts

Indian Calendar × Santiniketan

The Bengal School defined itself against the academic naturalism of Raja Ravi Varma, whose paintings the oleograph presses reproduced; set the two side by side to show soft wash and earth pigment against glossy, saturated chromolithograph.

From the research on Santiniketan & Bengal School Graphics

Mix them and make something Indian Calendar Santiniketan

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Indian Calendar, their arrangement from Indian Calendar, the finish from Santiniketan. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Indian Calendar & Bazaar Art Santiniketan & Bengal School Graphics

Type from Indian Calendar: Hand-lettering
Colour from Santiniketan: Earth & mineral
Analogous harmony
Form from Indian Calendar: Naturalistic depiction
Abundant decoration

Santiniketan avoids naturalistic depiction: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.
Composition from Indian Calendar: Central symmetry
Single focal point
Surface from Santiniketan: Painterly brushwork
Paper & letterpress bite

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Indian Calendar

Grace

Rozha One, standing in for Hand-drawn Devanagari display lettering

Text · Santiniketan

The nationalist, anti-academic art of Calcutta and Santiniketan, which turned from oil-paint naturalism and chromolithograph gloss to Indian and pan-Asian sources. Abanindranath Tagore's circle painted in soft, layered Japanese-derived washes (Bharat Mata, 1905); Nandalal Bose's Kala Bhavana took the pata's brush line, earth pigments and alpana motifs into the Dandi March linocut (1930), the Haripura panels (1938) and the illuminated Constitution (1949). R. Siva Kumar calls subsuming the Santiniketan masters under the Bengal School misleading; the entry joins them by shared graphic choices.

EB Garamond; Santiniketan used Prem Behari Narain Raizada's flowing italic pen calligraphy for the English text of the Constitution of India and Vasant Krishan Vaidya's Devanagari calligraphy for the Hindi Constitution

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Santiniketan, with a counter-accent from Indian Calendar. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Indian Calendar & Bazaar Art Santiniketan & Bengal School Graphics

#ece2c9 ground · 36%
#221d19 ink · 14%
#c8932f accent · 18%
#a3432a accent · 14%
#c8202f accent · 10%
#35506c accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #ece2c9;
  --ink: #221d19;
  --accent-1: #c8932f;
  --accent-2: #a3432a;
  --accent-3: #c8202f;
  --accent-4: #35506c;
  --font-display: "Rozha One", serif;
  --font-text: "EB Garamond", serif;
}

Use it with care

Indian Calendar & Bazaar Art: These are devotional images that many viewers worship, so do not crop, distort or deface deities or place them on footwear, floors, underwear or in mocking contexts. Many original painters went uncredited; name the artist and press where known.

Santiniketan & Bengal School Graphics: Alpana is a living ritual practice of women in Bengali homes, taught at Kala Bhavana by Sukumari Devi and others, and the pata line Santiniketan borrowed belongs to patua families who still paint: credit and commission these makers rather than lifting motifs. Bharat Mata and the Constitution's vignettes show Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Sikh figures that are still worshipped or revered, and the Bharat Mata image has since become associated with Hindu nationalism and is contested by some Muslims and Sikhs, so do not crop, mock or recast it as party propaganda. The State Emblem's use is restricted by the State Emblem of India (Prohibition of Improper Use) Act, 2005.

The two styles

1878–present · South Asia Indian Calendar & Bazaar Art Mass-printed images of Hindu deities, epic scenes, saints, nationalist heroes and film stars, sold in bazaars and given away as business calendars, from the chromolithographs of the Calcutta Art Studio and Ravi Varma Press to Sivakasi offset. Frontal, idealised figures painted with academic naturalism glow against dreamy landscapes, in saturated colour with gold, haloes and ornate frames above the sponsor's name and calendar pad.

A stylised woman wearing a cream striped sari and blue blouse kneels to plant a leafy sapling in brown soil. The words “Plant Life” appear above her hands on a textured cream background enclosed by a rust-red border with floral corner motifs.

1905–1954 · South Asia Santiniketan & Bengal School Graphics The nationalist, anti-academic art of Calcutta and Santiniketan, which turned from oil-paint naturalism and chromolithograph gloss to Indian and pan-Asian sources. Abanindranath Tagore's circle painted in soft, layered Japanese-derived washes (Bharat Mata, 1905); Nandalal Bose's Kala Bhavana took the pata's brush line, earth pigments and alpana motifs into the Dandi March linocut (1930), the Haripura panels (1938) and the illuminated Constitution (1949). R. Siva Kumar calls subsuming the Santiniketan masters under the Bengal School misleading; the entry joins them by shared graphic choices.