The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c6.s1.20

c6.s1.20

I will add that they worked also according to nature : you have been enabled to judge for yourselves of their honest care for true detail. Each photographic reproduction of their works has shown you, as through a window opening upon the past, the costumes, weapons, tools, furniture and vehicles employed in India two thousand years ago ; and thus in one hour they have given you through your eyes more concrete ideas about that civilization than you would have been able to acquire in a year’s reading. But the greatest service that they have rendered us — for from it flow all the others — was when they carried their foresight to the point of engraving by the side of the majority of their compositions the titles of the subjects which they had intended to represent. What gratitude ought we not to feel towards them for that just distrust of their own talent, so rare among artists! It has given us the key to ancient Indian art. So much modesty, sincerity and conviction, do they not go far towards making up for the lack of technical skill? I am sure you will not be severe towards them in this respect : and if these fables, these fabliaux and moralities, have interested your eyes no less than your ears, you will thank not only the narrators of them, but also the worthy old image-makers of India.