Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c7.66

c7.66

The Hindu artist has an entirely different starting-point. He believes that the highest type of beauty must be sought after, not in the imitation, or selection, of human or natural forms, but in the endeavour to suggest something finer and more subtle than ordinary physical beauty. Mere bodily strength and mundane perfections of form are rarely glorified in Indian art. When the Indian artist models a representation of the Deity with an attenuated waist and abdomen, and suppresses all the smaller anatomical details so as to obtain an extreme simplicity of contour, the European draws a mental comparison with the ideas of Phidias or Michelangelo, and declares that the Indian is sadly ignorant of anatomy and incapable of imitating the higher forms of Nature.