Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c10.77

c10.77

IT will be easily understood that, owing partly to the destructive influences of a tropical climate acting on materials ordinarily much less durable than stone or metal, and partly to the greater facilities which they offer to the destructive propensities of the vandal and Philistine, the existing records of pictorial art are much fewer than those of sculpture. As the motives and ideals of Indian religious art have been explained more or less fully in the chapters relating to sculpture, I shall not attempt to cover the whole of the same ground in painting, but confine myself chiefly to the secular art of the Mogul period. The Calcutta Art Gallery now possesses one of the finest collections of this remarkable school, and, owing to the facilities kindly afforded me by the Bengal Government, I am enabled to give reproductions of some of the masterpieces of the best Mogul artists.