Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c3.4

c3.4

I hope, also, that this book may save from oblivion and from the tender mercies of the ignorant Philistine the unique collection of the Calcutta Art Gallery. I still look forward to the time when our whole administrative policy in India will be guided by intelligent and consistent views of art; though, as the principal artistic errors in it were pointed out by Fergusson more than fifty years ago, the hope may seem to be a vain one. The ruthless vandalism which prevailed in his time has been checked. We no longer desecrate and destroy the masterpieces of the Moguls and the great monuments of ancient India : we patch them up and try to admire them. But there is still that insidious form of vandalism in our departmental system—much more cruel and deadly than active iconoclasm, because it acts through mind instead of matter—which continues blindly to crush out the means by which India might yet surpass the greatness of her ancient art.