DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68516#0197
INDIAN ART
luscious rhythms of Indian art are held in control. Look, for instance, at
the oval of the central mask with its almost rectangular outline; the
inflections of the curves are often scarcely perceptible. A side view (265)
shows the same exquisite sensibility. Although the formal theme is so
evident, see how the lip echoes the chin and is answered by the curves of
the brow with more distant echoes from the head-dress; there is here
no schematic or mechanical emptiness—the modelling for all its almost
austere simplicity is none the less deeply coloured by the sensual tender-
ness of surface so peculiar to Indian art. Nowhere else, I think, is this
intense voluptuousness so nicely balanced by a controlled severity of
conception.
The Kailasa at Ellora belongs approximately to the same date: this
relief (266) is from there. Here again I think Indian art rises to the
highest point of plastic beauty. It has a nervous strength which is quite
unusual in Indian art and brings it nearer to our own conceptions of the
figure—look, for instance, at the modelling of the woman’s torso with its
controlled firmness and vigour. It reminds me almost of a drawing by
Degas. This is very unlike the relaxed pliancy of most Indian sculpture
and so, rather paradoxically, although the subject is so frankly volup-
tuous it is so completely transposed into a plastic harmony that there is
no interference with our aesthetic pleasure by irrelevant suggestiveness,
which is incidentally an example of how much more potent are the
evocations due to the artist’s treatment than are those due to the subject
itself.
The river goddess (267) is also from Ellora. It is curious to see how
nearly Indian art here approximates to some aspects of European rococo.
The curves are more invertebrate, more unctuous, but how like in
general effect to some of the wilder inventions of the Louis XV period or
perhaps more to its German imitators. And there is great beauty in the
swaying movement of the figure through which the rhythm is carried in
a continuous phrase, and there is some idea of organic design in the
delicate enrichment of the background against which the high relief of
the figure tells admirably.
FLL
< l6l >
I I
luscious rhythms of Indian art are held in control. Look, for instance, at
the oval of the central mask with its almost rectangular outline; the
inflections of the curves are often scarcely perceptible. A side view (265)
shows the same exquisite sensibility. Although the formal theme is so
evident, see how the lip echoes the chin and is answered by the curves of
the brow with more distant echoes from the head-dress; there is here
no schematic or mechanical emptiness—the modelling for all its almost
austere simplicity is none the less deeply coloured by the sensual tender-
ness of surface so peculiar to Indian art. Nowhere else, I think, is this
intense voluptuousness so nicely balanced by a controlled severity of
conception.
The Kailasa at Ellora belongs approximately to the same date: this
relief (266) is from there. Here again I think Indian art rises to the
highest point of plastic beauty. It has a nervous strength which is quite
unusual in Indian art and brings it nearer to our own conceptions of the
figure—look, for instance, at the modelling of the woman’s torso with its
controlled firmness and vigour. It reminds me almost of a drawing by
Degas. This is very unlike the relaxed pliancy of most Indian sculpture
and so, rather paradoxically, although the subject is so frankly volup-
tuous it is so completely transposed into a plastic harmony that there is
no interference with our aesthetic pleasure by irrelevant suggestiveness,
which is incidentally an example of how much more potent are the
evocations due to the artist’s treatment than are those due to the subject
itself.
The river goddess (267) is also from Ellora. It is curious to see how
nearly Indian art here approximates to some aspects of European rococo.
The curves are more invertebrate, more unctuous, but how like in
general effect to some of the wilder inventions of the Louis XV period or
perhaps more to its German imitators. And there is great beauty in the
swaying movement of the figure through which the rhythm is carried in
a continuous phrase, and there is some idea of organic design in the
delicate enrichment of the background against which the high relief of
the figure tells admirably.
FLL
< l6l >
I I