Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c31.31

c31.31

In later mediæval times, we have to consider Portuguese and Dutch and finally English influence on Sinhalese art. The influence of Portuguese and Dutch in the low-country in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, on art, costume, and manners was extremely marked; but as regards the unconquered inland districts, comparatively slight. We trace it in the forms of furniture; but here again it is almost entirely in the low-country that almirahs, four-post beds, chairs and tables came into use, and only in the nineteenth century that these spread rapidly into the Kandyan districts. In building, the same is also true; the round pillared open verandahs, romanesque arches and other details of nineteenth century domestic architecture have mainly spread from the low-country, and are often the work of low-country architects and masons. The direct influence of the Portuguese and Dutch on Kandyan culture was limited to that of the presents sent to the Kandyan kings; the influence of the prisoners at the Kandyan Court, some of them having been, it is said, employed as builders, and one, at least, appointed Koṭṭalbadde Nilame; and the influence of articles of commerce, principally cotton materials, metal ware, etc. Portuguese influence is, for example, traceable in the type of chest called Indo-Portuguese, with iron or brass fittings with Renaissance ornament. It is evident in many specimens of iron work; hinges seem directly based on European forms. There is much repoussed and chased ornament of metal work that seems also to show traces of Renaissance influence, yet may almost equally well be quite indigenous. The silver and ivory casket of the Crystal Buddha at the Daḷadā Māligāva is suggestive of Italian workmanship. I have seen also old brocades that may have been of Italian or Spanish origin. Dutch influence is seen in the brass tobacco boxes, of which Dutch examples are still common, beside the Sinhalese imitations; and in certain methods of representing lions, as in the corners of the Flag of the Four Kōrales figured by Bell (Kēgalla Report, p. 126). A similar lion rampant holding a sword is carved on a jaggery mould in my collection. These forms are quite distinctly European, and different from typical Sinhalese lions.