Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c19.46

c19.46

with the interpretation of individuality. It would not be possible for many such personal individual pictures to be made; and one essential of religious art, is that there shall be a possibility of the work being done fairly well by average craftsmen. This does not at all rule out the genius, who has a greater, not a less, opportunity than has such a man nowadays who can only do good work, in conscious opposition to the spirit of the age. Furthermore, only great individual artists could depict the mental struggle adequately as such; but the concrete symbolism made it possible for average workmen at all times to produce a sufficient result; without preventing the great man from throwing all his genius into the expression of peace in the seated figure.