Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c15.83

c15.83

A few words must be said as to the carving. The designs are for the most part those common to the whole of Sinhalese decorative art, but treated in a manner suited to the material. The treatment is always extremely flat, no attempt at relief or undercutting being made. This admirable restraint is now a thing of the past, for the influence of Kandyan woodwork and carving is hardly perceptible in modern building and furnishing. Furniture is based almost entirely on Dutch models, with fluted and bowed legs and relief carving. The flattest treatment of carved wood is seen in the regular ‘chip-carving’ of the bed in Pl. X., 6, and Fig. 84, or the sweetmeat mould, Pl. XIII., 4. Somewhat greater relief is characteristic of the *liya vela* ornament of door-jambs, and the carving of pillars, capitals and bolts. Even in these cases the treatment remains severe, the stems of the foliage flattened and not rounded or undercut. A characteristic feature is the emphasis of the outline of stems or interlaced work with an incised line next to the margin on each side. In this, and some other respects, such as the flat balusters of the Asgiriya chair (Pl. IX., 5) we are reminded of old Scandinavian methods. Some kinds of work, as bed-heads (Pl. XI., 3, and Fig. 85) were in many cases pierced as well as carved, giving an appearance of greater relief and light and shade. Even here the flat surface and incised outlines were retained. Wood-carving completely in the round is rarer; the string-rice mould (Pl. XI., 1) and the handles of dippers (Pl. XIII) afford examples. Wood was also used for figure sculpture, but not generally; in such cases, as also in many cases of merely decorative carving (Pl. IX., 1), it was painted. *Makara toraṇa* shrines for figures of Buddha were sometimes made of wood carved in high relief, as in the example from Danagirigala Vihāra, figured by Mr. Bell (Kẹgalla Report, p. 43). There is also a small example in the Colombo Museum.