Indian Sculpture c5.s2.t6.19

c5.s2.t6.19

The pendulum of the attitude of the artist towards life has swung back. The oneness with nature in its extended aspects is now condensed and transferred into the human frame. This integration aggrandises the latter to superhuman dimensions and constitutes the notion, if not as yet the form, of the image (Mathurā). The other alternative is that it burdens or elates in order to transcend the human figure (Amarāvatī). In the sculptures of Veṅgī transcendentalism is rendered in terms of locality; the movement of figures and compositions exceeds their actual extension. Transcendentalism, in the sense of a transubstantiation of the body itself and within its frame, was expressed by subsequent generations of craftsmen.