South Indian Bronzes: A Historical Survey of South Indian Sculpture with Iconographical Notes Based on Original Sources c10.6

c10.6

In the first place whatever may have been the value of these artistic devices and the graceful poses suggested by the rules of proportions and measurements, when repeated by the inferior craftsmen who were unable to enter into the feeling of these artistic motifs and to understand the rationale of the original inventions, the conception of the master-sculptors was bound to degenerate when couched in slovenly technique, which was unworthy of the idea which it sought to express; and it would have been infinitely preferable for the less talented artist to express his own humble ideas in his own way than to strut along the grooves of conventions which he could not understand, interpret, or use as his own. Besides, having regard to the subject-matter of these sculptures, the artist was not allowed to be the interpreter of his own ideas but was set to work upon the ideas imposed by the priests and iconographers of the temple; and the task of interpreting the ideas of others is much more difficult than to interpret one's own. It is evident therefore that, however excellent a training these canons afforded to the apprentice in craftsmanship and design, they tended now and then to paralyse the freedom of expression of the less gifted craftsman. For while their original object was to secure a fixation of the types for these cult-images, by forbidding experiments on new lines, they succeeded also in many cases, in fixing and circumscribing the limits of individual artistic expression.