The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c11.s1.119

c11.s1.119

(¹) It is, of course, understood that we are here speaking from the point Not only are the characteristic episodes thus drowned in a dull, monotonous flood of pictures without movement, but even in each picture the principal motif is often submerged under a veritable debauch of accessories and details. The only excuse here for the artists is to be found in the form of the frame, which is at least three times as wide as it is high. Consequently there is no great personage whose cortège is not spread out to form a wall-covering, sometimes over several rows. True, the presence of these numerous dumb actors is quite conformable to Javanese, as well as to Indian, custom; but it is understood that most often they take no part in the action : they confine themselves to crowding it with their stereotyped repetition, which is more or less compensated by the variety of the attitudes, always deftly treated. This is not all : the sculptors have made it, as it were, a point of honour not to leave vacant any part of the surface at their disposal. In order to complete the furnishing of their panels, they go so far as to fill the space beneath the seats with coffers or vases (cf. pll. XXXV, 1; XXXVIII, 2; XXXIX, 1; XL, 1); at the top they heap together, according to circumstances, buildings or trees, naturally figured on a reduced scale; or again rocks, treated according to the old Indian convention (cf. pll. XXXVII, 2, upper scene; XLI, 1); or, finally, ani-