The Association Vaisnava Gaudiya Vedanta (AVGV) organizes the
First International Prize of Vedic Painting

See the Regulations

Registration form of the Prize

The Vedic Culture reached its greatest development in East around 5000 years ago, especially in India, where the society was founded on the principles of the Vedic Civilization.
The human beings were living in peace and harmony following the principles of non-violence, compassion, fraternity, truth; most were engaged in a virtuous life, searching for God realization.  
Till nowadays we can find the vestiges of the grandeur of this civilization which has influenced the whole world.
The paintings, the sculptures, the architecture, the music, as the knowledge, have been handed on till today stimulating the interest in seekers and scholars.

The Vedic painting is a certain type of artistic expression; it combines the ability and the art of expression with the contents of the Vedic literature, which are mainly directed to the transcendence and to the research of the self realization.
In the course of time it has develop and nowadays it is proposed again on the canvas of many artists from all over the world, thanks especially to its spreading in Western countries since the Sixties together with the broadcast of the Vedas translated and distributed in all the main languages, by the great master and preacher Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja.
The International Prize of Vedic painting wants to represent an opportunity for those who, inspired by the study and the knowledge of the Vedas, have developed the desire to express their own artistic capacities giving form and representation to the meanings and the realizations handed on till today by the great masters and spiritualists.

This first prize of Vedic painting will be presented during the European Vaisnava Festival which will be held from 1st to 7th July 2010 in Tuscany, in the town of Marina di Massa.
What a best place, the Tuscany, the homeland of Renaissance and of its most important classic masters, just at few kilometers from the quarry where Michelangelo took the marble to give form to the Myts and Gods at those times never figured. Indeed just during the Renaissance, for the first time in western civilization, Michelangelo represented in his frescoes, God with an human feature.
This extraordinary fact, has created a revolution on the way to think and see the spirituality, and in fact has defeated the common theory of God without form and qualities.
This is, on the other hand, the heritage of the Vedic Civilization for which it has become master and guide: in the Vedas, Upanisad, Puranas, we can find detailed descriptions of the form of God, of His wonderful activities and of the variety of the spiritual world, as the pure souls describe them, because they have realized and have seen the Truth.

We can see how this kind of picture is giving place to new inspirations, for this reason we want to introduce to the public even through the medium of this prize, the value and the beauty of these paintings.
The paintings selected, will therefore utilized to illustrate and give worth to the Vedic literature which is still translated and published by the Master of Millenium Yugacarya Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja.

We hope that the principles of this ancient Vedic Culture, applied at present, including the art, will helps to bring peace of mind and harmony to a distressed and depressed modern civilization.
By this initiative we wish to get a positive feedback and give visibility and vitality to a spiritual research and science so important for the mankind.