About
About this site
This site publishes research and catalogue essays on Sri Lankan modern and pre-modern art, and on the antiquarian books, maps and magazines of Ceylon. It is written and maintained by Malaka Talwatte.
Books and maps as a peer of the paintings
The books, maps and magazines of Ceylon are treated here as a peer of the paintings rather than as an appendix to them. A survey map of the interior, a bound run of a Colombo magazine and a watercolour of the same coast are all records of how the island was seen, described and set down, and each is catalogued with the same attention to edition, state, condition and history.
How entries are written
Where a fact is uncertain it is written as uncertain. An attribution that rests on style rather than on documents is described that way, and a date that cannot be fixed is given as the range the evidence supports.
Begin with the writing, or read how to cite this site.