Artists

Classical

The oldest paintings on the island, kept on the living rock that has held them for centuries, from the fifth-century painters of Sigiriya to the shrine walls of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. It is the oldest surviving painting in the country, and among the oldest in South Asia. The hands that made it kept no names; the work is known instead by its places, and it is under those places that it is gathered here.