The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c3.5

c3.5

A history of Buddhist Art is a task for the future ; may we some day have the pleasure of welcoming a systematic treatise upon the subject from M. Foucher's own pen. For the present we are only at the commencement. Nothing guarantees us that in its beginnings the Art shall be found on a level with the doctrine, or that it shall follow a parallel course, or again that it shall develope with a proportional rapidity. On the contrary, we see already that at Sânchî and Barhut, after centuries of active speculation, it makes its appeal primarily to a community characterized by naive and simple piety. In the case of Christianity how many centuries of dogmatic strife precede the age of the primitives! Nevertheless the reader who turns from the essays on Barhut and Sânchî to those dealing with the Great Miracle and with Boro-Budur — much clearer would be his impression, if he embraced in his view the mediæval and modern art of China, Japan, and Tibet — cannot fail to note the metaphysical contemplation which has grown upon the decay of the older popular piety. Yet even here we have a warning as to the partial reversions which may result from the transplanting of religion to a less sophisticated society : since in the sculptures of Boro-Budur we find again — in an atmosphere, it is true, of hypertropical softness — no small admixture of that frank pleasure in mere story-telling which is the special charm of Sânchî and Barhut.