Temple murals that became George Keyt’s magnum opus
In his own style: The murals seem to spring from the walls with so much life. Pix by Eshan Fernando
The image house at the Gothami Vihara in Borella looks deceptively ordinary and insignificant. Shaded by giant trees amidst mouldy white colonial buildings, it is a soft ochre and has a simple if two tiered tiled roof.
But walk in and you stand hushed in the presence of some of our most magnificent modern art, done by artist George Keyt in the effervescent ’40’s, when Harold Pieris got his famous brother-in-law to fill these walls with robust, sinuous figures from the Buddha’s fabled life, in a glorious life-like pageant in the manner of the old village vihara-ge.
Not only are the semi-cubist figures (very voluptuous in the case of the women) a stunning improvement on the somewhat lurid normal presentations, but they also seem to spring from the walls with so much life, as if in a graceful, unfolding dance.
The murals were done for free though it is said the paint alone cost Keyt 35,000 Rupees.
This temple itself, says the Ven. Dolosbage Santhanaga Thera now residing there, was built in 1925 on land donated at the beginning of that century by Lady Apollonia de Soysa Pieris, mother to Sir James Pieris. The founding chief incumbent was the Ven. Dodanduwe Piyaratne Thera.
Known commonly as the Pieris Temple because of the patronage of the family, it was left to Lady Pieris’s grandson, the gentle Harold Pieris to steer friend and relative Keyt to what turned out to be his magnum opus.
There was, at the time, an old shrine room in the Kandyan style with statuary standing in gloomy darkness, all artisanal work, and these were demolished to make way for Keyt.
The current paintings stand the most famous testament to Keyt’s greatness as an artist. The maverick Burgher, who became a Buddhist early on, had absorbed much at the feet of Kandyan monks like Ven. Pinnawela Dhirananda- of the local culture and arts.
Painted from 1938 to 1941, the curves and the sensuality evident in the murals caused no little scandal in conservative Ceylon at first.
The style was Keyt’s own. It had a dash of Picasso (the maarayas or the devils trying to defeat the Buddha especially, take you to the terrors of the Guernica) but was also influenced by Ajantha, Sigiriya and Degaldoruwa frescoes, these latter Kandyan with beautiful stylized panels.
There are other interesting names associated with this little image house. Andrew Boyd, the architect who designed the first modern house in Ceylon in Kandy, an Anglo-Indian who was also a friend of Keyt and Lionel Wendt, actually built a studio for Keyt in the Gothami Vihara and also created the image house in its modern form as a top-lit ambulatory, allowing daylight to seep through a glass enclosure.
Also assisting Keyt was a young L.T.P. Manjusri, the famed artist, who added the punkalas or pots of plenty to the doors of the image house. After donning saffron robes for a period of time, Manjusri in fact resided in this temple.
Curiously, when painting the murals, Keyt added the likeness of the then Chief Incumbent of the temple, Venerable Thelwatte Amarawansha Thera, amidst the disciples listening to the first sermon by the Buddha at the deer park at Sarnath.
Today the murals – a protected archaeological monument – can be viewed through glass doors. It is a measure to ensure that this Buddhist art will endure for centuries more to come.
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