The Chennai Museum has a good collection of paintings and sculptures, both traditional and modern. The traditional paintings of Tanjore, Rajput, Moghul, Kangra, Deccani schools and modern paintings in Oil, Tempera, Water Colour, Graphics and Acrylic mediums. Graphics and modern style metal sculptures are also in the collections. Tanjore paintings depict the figures of Tanjore Maratha Kings and Queens and Puranic (mythological) scenes from Tamil Literature. Rajput paintings belong to 16th and 17th centuries AD. They illustrate the rhythm of love based on musical modes. The court scene of Emperor Babur, portraits of Jehangir, Shah Jehan, animals and birds are the subject matter of Moghul paintings. The Kangra paintings represent Krishna legends as the main subject. There are twelve Portraits of British Governors and Governors-General in the collections.

The new Rock and Cave Art Gallery of the Government Museum, Chennai makes the Rock and Cave Art found usually in the remote areas easily accessible to the visitor. This gallery has been set up after field study to the sites and academic research by a team from the Department of Museum led by the commissioner Dr. R. Kannan, Ph.D., I.A.S. By using the latest techniques of display, the Museum has simulated the natural atmosphere of the caves. It has used interactive Son-et-lumiere, Touch Screen and Tran slides to stimulate visitor interest.

Rock Art sites like Perumukkal in South Arcot (petroglyphs), Alambadi, Keezhvalai in Villupuram District, Vellarikombai and Iduhatti in Nilgiris District are some of the Rock Art sites on display. Tirumalai in Tiruvanamalai District, Sittannavasal and Tirugokarnam in Pudukottai District and Mahabalipuram are some of the Cave Art sculptures and paintings on display.

Children’s Museum
Children’s Museum" is a place of wonder for children, which takes them from the land of books to the land of objects. It encourages a child to probe new horizons. It directs children into constructive and worthwhile pastimes. It moulds them into sound citizens of the future.

The Children’s Museum of the Government Museum, Chennai consists of Basement, Ground floor and First floor, each having 5000 sq.ft. area. The architecture of the Children’s Museum conforms to that of a model museum building, with all the facilities contemplated in a modern museum. The display arrangements in the Children’s Museum reveals to the children the world in which they live, arouses intellectual curiosity and opens the door to the world of wonder.

Besides the galleries a fountain operated by solar power and water pumping unit operated by windmill, the life size Tyrannosaurus and Stegosaurus fibre glass models are the added attractions of the Children's Museum. Visitor facilities such as see through lift and a ramp way for physically handicapped visitors are available. It is a place where education is recreation and recreation is education.

The Archaeological Section of the Museum is primarily concerned with the acquisition, preservation and display of antiquities of the historic period of South India. The antiquities consist of sculptures, architectural pieces, metal and stone inscriptions which have a bearing on the past history and social life of the people of this part of India. A significant collection of objects representing the industrial arts such as wood carving, ivory work, metalware, inlay and embossed works for which South India has been famous from very early times, is also dealt with by the Section.

The objects mentioned above have been slowly accumulated and preserved in the Museum since its inception. They were organized into the present form about 1938 AD due to the efforts of Dr.F.H.Gravely. Though prior to the formation of the Section, sporadic research on certain groups of antiquities have revealed the importance of the objects and thus made the Museum well known yet only after the formation of the Section more detailed studies of the antiquities of the Museum were undertaken, and the results of the studies published in a series of Museum Bulletins. Gradually, the scope of research work of the Section, initiated by Dr.Gravely, was expanded so as to include other allied subjects such as temple architecture. The activities of the Section, thus, increased and as a consequence, it grew rapidly in size.

Collections

The collections of the Section may be grouped as follows, each group being important and interesting in its own way: (1) Bronze figures, (2) specimens of sculpture and architectural pieces, (3) inscriptions and (4) industrial art objects. The study of the objects of the first three groups is essential for a proper evaluation of the levels of culture reached by the people of the different periods and localities to which they belong. The inscriptions are, however, the main source for the history of the country as also for its social life. The study of the specimens of the industrial arts reveals how dexterous the South Indian craftsmen were in their application of various art motifs to objects used in daily life or on ceremonial occasions.

Bronze figures

By far the best known objects of the Section are the metal figures. There are over 1500 of them in the Museum, of which about 85 are Buddhist, about two dozen Jain and the rest Hindu. This Museum is perhaps the only institution in the whole world, where such a large collection of metal figures is assembled under a single roof. One must remember here that there are countless figures of this kind in the innumerable temples of South India. This bewildering quantity will itself suffice to show the extent to which the art of casting images or figures in metal had been practiced in this part of India in the past-unprecedented in the history of any other country in the world. As several of them are so wonderfully wrought and are in accordance with the accepted canons of aesthetics, they are amongst the world's best treasures of art.

The collection of bronze figures contains specimens of different periods ranging from the early centuries of the Christian era to the recent times. The four fragmentary Buddha figures excavated at Amaravati in the Guntur district, are the earliest and date from about the third century AD. The style and features of these figures presuppose a considerable familiarity with the art on the part of the people who made them. The other Buddhist metal images come from Nagapattinam, and they vary in date. Of these, the seated Buddha and the small figure of Simhanada in the graceful maharajah lila pose are important.
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Medi

aeval Sculptures

There are over 700 specimens of stone sculptures belonging to the period from about 600 AD to recent times in the section. Of these, about 50 are Jain, about 25 memorial or hero stones, about a dozen Buddhist figures, about 10 snake stones and the rest are of Hindu deities. It is as much true of stone sculptures as of metallic figures that to whatever faith they may belong, the features of the art of the period are marked in the sculptures of the period, except for minor local variations. Hindu sculptures are shown in two galleries. In the New Extension Gallery typical examples of South Indian Sculptures from Tamilnadu and from other areas are shown in chronological order. In the general section the remaining specimens are shown. The noteworthy specimens from Tamilnadu belong to the Pallava and Chola periods (600-1300 AD). Among the Pallava sculptures, the figure of horned Dvarapalaka and Yoga Dakshinamurti shown in the New Extension and the figure representing Virabhadra, six of the seven mother goddesses shown in the other gallery are noteworthy. Of the Chola sculptures, the mutilated figure of Shanmukha and the Parvati figure shown in the New Extension gallery and the group of Vishnu and his consorts and the Gajalakshmi figure shown in the other gallery are noteworthy. Representing the art of the Pandyan territory of the period are a few specimens of which the figures of Agni and Vayu from Tirunelveli are the best. The sculptures of the subsequent periods are lacking in expression although the figure of Bhikshatana belonging to the Vijayanagara period shown in the New Extension gallery retains some of the beauty characteristic of the figures of the earlier periods.
The sculptures from the Telugu and Kannada speaking areas include specimens of the art patronised by the royal dynasties of these areas such as the Chalukyas, Nolambas, Hoysalas, etc. Here also the sculptures belonging to periods earlier than the Vijayanagar period are noted for their beauty and expression. Of these early sculptures, the Ganesa and Dvarapalaka figures of the Eastern Chalukyan period, the Vinadhara Dakshinamurti figure of the Nolamba period and the Saptamatrika group of figures of the Hoysala-Kakatiya period, all shown in the New Extension gallery, are works of high artistic merit.

The Jain sculptures of the Section are shown in a room beyond the Buddhist sculpture gallery. They are mostly representations of Jain Tirthankaras in the usual stiff posture. But the figure of a Tirthankara from Tuticorin, the figure of Mahavira from the South Arcot District are in the Pallava style and the figures representing Mahavira and Parsvanatha from Danavulapadu in the Cuddapah district, in Andhra Pradesh belonging to the Rashtrakuta period, show features characteristic of the art of the period to which they belong.

That Buddhism continued in the Tamil districts long after it ceased to exist in other parts of South India, is proved not only by the Buddhist metal images from Nagapattinam but also by a few stone figures of the Buddha belonging to this part. However, the smallness of the collection is indication of the fact that Buddhism was not followed by many. Of these Buddhist stone images, the more than life-size figures of standing Buddha from Kanchipuram are interesting.

Though there are only a few specimens representing each of the groups of sculptures such as hero-stones, memorial stones, sati stones and snake stones, they are valuable not only because they throw light on the life of the village people of ancient South India but also because of the inscriptions on them. The snake stones, as a group, are specially interesting as they reveal the fact that the people still continue the worship of snakes, an ancient practice, in a modified form
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Industrial Art

The exhibits of the Section consist of specimens of wood carving, ivory carving, metalware, inlay and embossed works. Their total number is about 1,450. The wood carving of South India is noted for its wealth of details. A great majority of the Museum collection of woodcarving belong to old temple cars. They represent the various deities of the Hindu pantheon. Some of the representations of figures are unique as corresponding representations of the figures in metal are not met with.

The ivory carvings include representations of animals such as cows, deer and deities such as Vinayaka by traditional carvers of Mysore, Travancore and Visakhapatnam. The excellence of workmanship of the carver is revealed by the intricate work on an ink-bottle holder in the collections.

The metalware objects consist of lamps of different types, utensils used in temple and household worship, toys and luxury articles such as betel boxes and nut crackers. Each one of these groups is of great interest. Especially, the collection of lamps is remarkable for the multiplicity of types and the delicacy of workmanship. Of these, the large lamps with festooned branches spreading out, exhibited in the centre of the metalware gallery are noteworthy.

The Tanjore metal vessels and Bidri ware exhibited in the gallery are also of interest.

During 1992 AD the Bronze Gallery was reorganised. The Industrial Art Gallery was reorganised in 1997 AD.
Fort Tranquebar
Conservation work of a part of the Danish Fort has been completed recently under the supervision of the Commissioner Archaeology and Museums, Government of Tamil Nadu. The Fort has also been illuminated by modern lighting.