DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67683#0606
42.0
INDIA
aristocratic beings, noble, dignified, and filled with deep emotion.
As in the Elura sculptures (Pl. i6z a) the figures express per-
fectly the passion that dominates them. In largeness of design,
rhythmic sweep of line, and monumentality these paintings are
closely akin to the Elura reliefs, revealing the ability of the
artists to express only the significant and essential. These char-
acteristics remind us of what the great Greek paintings, which
we saw reflected in the Greek vases, must have been. The subject
matter may be very different, but the means of expression and the
way of looking at things are much the same in the disregard for
an illusion of nature; in the large, generalized aspect of form,
feeling, or situation, with the suppression of detail; in the flat
silhouette use of the figure, based upon line and used with a high
regard for its decorative possibilities; and also in the capacity to
express in their entirety spiritual values that are universal in
their appeal (compare Pls. 49 b and 163 c).
One easily discerns that this painting is based upon the use
of line with a negligible use of chiaroscuro. How much the
Indian painter could express by this one means alone, we can
see frequently at Ajanta. The figure of a woman seated with
her back to the spectator (Pl. 163 c), for example, is drawn with
the greatest skill. One feels convincingly the mass of the figure,
the firmness of the left wrist as it supports the weight of the body,
and the supple ease and exquisite grace of the right hand. The
expression of so much with a minimum of means must have been
the result of long generations of training, and required the skill
of a very great master. These paintings, we have said, were
frescoes; the technique is essentially that used in Italy, except
that the surface was smoothed and polished until it acquired a
marblelike finish. When we remember that the fresco technique
requires rapid, accurate workmanship, we realize all the more
the supreme technical skill in the use of line attained by these
painters.
The A] ant a Frescoes are almost exclusively Buddhist and
carry us to about the middle of the seventh century a.d. From
then on for about a thousand years, no paintings have survived
to us, though traces of the continuity of the tradition are being
found in recent discoveries in Turkestan and Tibet, where the
art was practiced as it spread along the great highways toward
China in the early centuries of the Christian era. It is not until
c. 1550 a.d. that we again find examples of Indian painting. In
the meantime important events had taken place. Buddhism had
been absorbed by Brahmanism and the cults of Vishnu and
INDIA
aristocratic beings, noble, dignified, and filled with deep emotion.
As in the Elura sculptures (Pl. i6z a) the figures express per-
fectly the passion that dominates them. In largeness of design,
rhythmic sweep of line, and monumentality these paintings are
closely akin to the Elura reliefs, revealing the ability of the
artists to express only the significant and essential. These char-
acteristics remind us of what the great Greek paintings, which
we saw reflected in the Greek vases, must have been. The subject
matter may be very different, but the means of expression and the
way of looking at things are much the same in the disregard for
an illusion of nature; in the large, generalized aspect of form,
feeling, or situation, with the suppression of detail; in the flat
silhouette use of the figure, based upon line and used with a high
regard for its decorative possibilities; and also in the capacity to
express in their entirety spiritual values that are universal in
their appeal (compare Pls. 49 b and 163 c).
One easily discerns that this painting is based upon the use
of line with a negligible use of chiaroscuro. How much the
Indian painter could express by this one means alone, we can
see frequently at Ajanta. The figure of a woman seated with
her back to the spectator (Pl. 163 c), for example, is drawn with
the greatest skill. One feels convincingly the mass of the figure,
the firmness of the left wrist as it supports the weight of the body,
and the supple ease and exquisite grace of the right hand. The
expression of so much with a minimum of means must have been
the result of long generations of training, and required the skill
of a very great master. These paintings, we have said, were
frescoes; the technique is essentially that used in Italy, except
that the surface was smoothed and polished until it acquired a
marblelike finish. When we remember that the fresco technique
requires rapid, accurate workmanship, we realize all the more
the supreme technical skill in the use of line attained by these
painters.
The A] ant a Frescoes are almost exclusively Buddhist and
carry us to about the middle of the seventh century a.d. From
then on for about a thousand years, no paintings have survived
to us, though traces of the continuity of the tradition are being
found in recent discoveries in Turkestan and Tibet, where the
art was practiced as it spread along the great highways toward
China in the early centuries of the Christian era. It is not until
c. 1550 a.d. that we again find examples of Indian painting. In
the meantime important events had taken place. Buddhism had
been absorbed by Brahmanism and the cults of Vishnu and