Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c12.13

c12.13

strokes in Chinese and Japanese ideographs has given an immense fluency and variety to the outline-drawings of the artists of those countries, so much so that in Japan ten different styles of line-drawing are recognised, each style representing a special character or mode of artistic expression. In writing Persian, the court language of the Moguls, or the more regular characters of the Indian languages, the hand would acquire less freedom but a more concentrated and delicate touch, and consequently, though the Mogul drawings have not the fluency of the Chinese and Japanese, we find in them the certainty and precision of a medallist, and a truly marvellous delicacy and refinement.