Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c12.161

c12.161

If art is the mirror of the age, it must always be humiliating to any artistic Englishman to contemplate our miserable, make-believe Gothic and make-believe classic cathedrals, churches, colleges, schools, offices of state, and historical monuments, and compare their banality, ugliness and squalor, with the dignity, strength, and greatness revealed in the splendid memorials of the Mogul Empire. It must be equally humiliating to any artistic Indian to see his educated fellow-countrymen imposed upon by these "imposing" structures, and using them as models instead of the great masterpieces of their own national architecture. They are indeed fitting symbols of many departmental muddles and make-believes.