Indian Sculpture c5.s3.t1.1

c5.s3.t1.1

A STAGE is now reached of ‘inflexion’ in its literal as well as in its most intense meaning. Whereas vegetative devices, for instance, such as the lotus-creeper (p. 30), have become rare or disappear altogether from the compositions, their movement seems to persist in that of the bodies and attitudes of the human figures, and in the manner in which they are modelled (Figs. 56–58, 62, etc.). This movement now seems to have its origin within the human frame which it moulds and the limbs of which it conducts according to its own sway. Thus it may be said that what hitherto had been shown as extensive (for instance, in the case of the endlessly rambling creeper) has now withdrawn into the within of the human figure, dynamically active there, yet seemingly at rest in the form it has brought about. In flowing, shallow and altogether unbroken curves, this movement glides along the outlines of the figures, and although varied in strength it can be found in any profile or section across the figures.