Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c10.201

c10.201

The next Tibetan banner (reproduced in Plate LI.) illustrates some of the extravagances into which Indian artistic thought relapses when the virtue of its original spiritual power has left it. There is a sense of decorative effect, but none of the dignity of the human form in the sprawling eight-armed and three-headed deity, Siddhottara, “ god of the white umbrellas,” displayed in the centre. The decadence of the art will be realised best by comparing this figure with the Nepalese sculpture in Plate XIX., in which the same idea is treated with real artistic power and sentiment.