Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c11.16

c11.16

To return to the history of Mogul art—the revival of painting in Persia under the Mogul rule was very largely due to the influence of the Chinese schools which, again, owed their inspiration originally to the art of India. In the early centuries of the Christian era the traditions of Indian religious art had been taken into Turkestan and China by Indian Buddhist missionaries and craftsmen, and by Chinese students taught in Indian universities. There they were acclimatised, and by the fusion of Indian idealism with the naturalism of the indigenous schools the modern schools of China and Japan originated, which are now much more familiar to European artists and art-critics than the art of India, to which they owe so much.