Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c7.107

c7.107

Even Professor Grünwedel writes as if Indian sculpture must be judged by the rules and formularies of modern European art-academies, and attempts to explain the assumed anatomical ignorance of Indian sculptors by the technical difficulties which the Indian fondness for jewellery imposed upon them. "The shoulders loaded with broad chains, the arms and legs covered with metal rings, the bodies encircled with richly linked girdles, could never have attained an anatomically correct form. Everywhere the carrying out of a clear outline was interfered with by broad ornamental lines, rich and tasteful in themselves, disturbing the natural position of the muscles of the leg and arm, and, in consequence, the limbs have received at the best an effeminate, seemingly correct, finish."¹