Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c7.44

c7.44

So Indian artists received even less recognition from their new masters than they had from Aurangzîb and his Muhammadan satraps. The wealthy Indians who wished to stand well with the British raj commenced to copy the fashions of their masters, building huge palaces in imitation of the English mansions of the period, and decorating the state apartments in which they received their European guests with oil-paintings and statuary imported from Europe. In this way not only was a great deal of patronage diverted from Indian artists into foreign channels, but a false standard of taste and an archæological prescription of art, entirely vicious and destructive to indigenous culture and artistic tradition, were created, making India at the present day the happy hunting-ground of every artistic charlatan, European or Indian.