Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c10.s1.16

c10.s1.16

Going back to Ajaṇṭā, we find that the human face is represented in three-quarter view, *i.e.*, one side of the face is fully represented, while two-thirds or three-quarters of the other side is usually represented. This was a well established convention in the art of Ajaṇṭā, but with the decadence of art we find in the later paintings of Cave Nos. I—II at Ajaṇṭā the development of a new tendency in which, though the three-quarter view is maintained, some changes are effected by representing the farther cheek somewhat lesser than the three-quarter part, with the result that the forehead, the nose and the chin remained in the same position as in the three-quarter view of the earlier paintings, but, with the pinching of the farther cheek, the farther eye began to protrude beyond the facial line till a stage is reached when this feature is conventionalised in Western Indian painting.