Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c15.23

c15.23

As Mr. Lewis remarks, “It is lamentable to see everywhere this process taking place; old and artistic Kandyan work is being removed and replaced by nondescript and hideous modern work after the style of the petty masons and contractors of the low country. The new temples are adorned with plaster masonry, sometimes representing sham venetian blinds, bastard and attenuated Gothic pointed arches are introduced; the Kandyan wooden pillars give way to round ones of brick plastered over, of the stock quasi-classical pattern that was introduced into the bungalows of the early English occupation; the doorways have semicircular arches with poor mouldings; the door panels and mouldings are painted in ugly loud colours which with the panels and mouldings have a Dutch character, but lack the massiveness and picturesqueness of their Dutch originals; and the pretty quaint little windows are being replaced by rectangular openings filled with ugly wooden *Woodwork* bars.”*