Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c12.156

c12.156

But the zeal of these ascetic religious reformers, though it had a most disastrous effect upon Indian sculpture, did not suppress the instinct for artistic creation, which has always accompanied great national religious and intellectual impulses. The artistic genius of the Moguls, deprived of the sculptor’s chisel, realised itself in a noble, idealistic architecture—of which the Taj Mahal may be regarded as the consummation—and, under the enlightened patronage of Akbar, a secular school of Indian painting arose, which, though it lacked the high spiritual purpose which inspired the old religious schools, nevertheless deserves the appreciation and careful study of all artists for its perfect sincerity and high technical distinction—qualities which are conspicuously wanting in the degenerate Anglicised art of the present day.