Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c7.252

c7.252

Art will always be *caviare* to the vulgar, but those who would really learn and understand it should begin with Indian art, for true Indian art is pure art, stripped of the superfluities and vulgarities which delight the uneducated eye. Yet Indian art, being more subtle and recondite than the classic art of Europe, requires a higher degree of artistic understanding, and it rarely appeals to European *dilettanti*, who, with a smattering of perspective, anatomy, and rules of proportion, added to their classical scholarship, aspire to be art-critics, amateur painters, sculptors, or architects; and these, unfortunately, have the principal voice in art-administration in India.