Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c7.24

c7.24

Many archæologists have devoted themselves to unravelling the historical, ethnological, and mythological problems connected with Indian art, but art, *quâ* art, rarely receives any attention from them. They have been contented with this assumption: that sculpture and painting, as fine arts, were introduced into India by the Greeks and Romans, and ceased to have any importance when that Western influence was withdrawn. We might say, with even greater justification, that all our English Gothic architecture is French or German, and describe the builders of St. Mark’s at Venice as the creators of later Italian art.