Class 11 Fine Arts: Painting

Fine Arts includes distinct elective courses. This page covers the CBSE Painting course (049), not every Fine Arts option. The curriculum combines a 30-mark theory paper with 70 marks of practical assessment.

Theory Unit 1 · Pre-Historic Rock Paintings and early Indian art

Study the period and location of prehistoric rock art, including the Bhimbetka painting Wizard’s Dance. The unit then introduces Indus/Sindhu-Saraswati art through the Dancing Girl, Male Torso, Mother Goddess, the Bull seal and painted pottery. For each work, identify medium, form, context and what the work can—and cannot—tell us about its society.

Continue through Buddhist, Jain and Hindu art from the Mauryan, Shunga, Kushana and Gupta periods; compare sculpture and cave art such as Ajanta through material, technique, iconography and style.

Artwork practice: Describe a work using observation before interpretation. Name its material, visual features and historical context; avoid unsupported claims about its maker or meaning.

Theory Unit 2 · Temple sculpture, bronzes and Indo-Islamic architecture

Explore Indian temple sculpture from the 6th to 13th centuries, with examples including Descent of Ganga, Trimurti, Lakshmi Narayana, the Konark Cymbal Player and Dilwara’s Mother and Child. Study bronze casting and the Chola-period Nataraja, then examine architectural features of Qutub Minar and Gol Gumbaz.

Compare: How do material, scale, setting and technique shape the viewer’s experience of a sculpture and a building?

Practical · Observation, composition and portfolio

Nature and Object Study develops accurate drawing through two or three natural and geometric forms observed from a fixed point of view, using light and shade. Painting Composition develops an imaginative arrangement of human figures and a clear visual focus. Portfolio assessment records process and selected work.

• Begin a still-life study by checking proportions and relative positions.
• Use light direction consistently to show form and volume.
• Plan a composition with a focal point, balanced space and deliberate colour choices.
• Keep sketches and revisions so the portfolio shows development, not only finished pieces.

Revision prompts

1. Compare one Indus art object with one work from the Gupta period by medium and visual treatment.
2. Identify two visual clues that can help distinguish sculpture from architectural decoration.
3. Explain how observation and imagination serve different purposes in the practical examination.