Indian Sculpture c6.s7.t1: (A) Candela Sculpture
Indian Sculpture c6.s7.t1
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(A) Candela Sculpture
c6.s7.t1.1
In the sculptures carved under the Candela dynasty the western trend has found most forceful utterance, side by side with a continuation of the classical, and at times combined with it. Candela sculpture stores classical tradition but faintly touched by mediævalisms, as well as some of the most decisive features of the latter.
c6.s7.t1.2
None of the nervous elegance of the westernmost branch (Figs. 84–86), none of the earthbound futility of the Rājput type (Figs. 87, 88), have found their way into central India. An intensity near to violence clasps the modelling, with sharply curved outlines. This is flattened out, or else it congeals under its tightness. Limbs jerk across the compositions like poles, so stiff yet with a purposeful ardour (Fig. 89). The facial physiognomy is in keeping with that of the compositional elements. Valiant in its pointed angularity, it registers defiance and a supercilious knowledge; while a faint softness, sometimes even a smile, spreads upwards from raised corners of the mouth. This still belongs partly to the innocence of the body (Figs. 92, 93).
c6.s7.t1.3
The stagnant modelling, congealed in its naturalism, i.e. in its aim to render the softness of the flesh as if brought about by the living breath, perseveres against the flattening tendency. This often results in numbness (Fig. 91), the more marked the more violently an all-round movement seems to turn the figure (Fig. 90). The turning of the figure around its axis, and the bending of all the joints, has the object of showing the female body simultaneously in its all-sided charms. Artistically it reels round into stagnation; its obvious erotic provocation is overstressed, and becomes annihilated by the way in which it is pronounced.
c6.s7.t1.4
The psychological aspect of mediæval, and of Candela sculpture specially, is not confined to human appearance only. The figure of the animal is resuscitated to a place of prominence, which it had held long ago in the art of the Indus valley. Supernatural potentialities of psychological knowledge are embodied in bulls and śārdulas (Figs. 92, 94).
c6.s7.t1.5
The animal had been graciously present throughout the classical phase. During this enchanted millenium the vegetative had overgrown its animal vitality. It was, whether animal or super-animal, but one stage of life, and this as a whole had been experienced in the rhythmic security of the entire composition. The aloofness and portentousness of the animal, as figured by Indus art, now once more are manifest, though they form the basis only of a further differentiated and dynamic animality. Ancient as well as mediæval Indian art acknowledge the supremacy of the animal, whereas throughout the classical phase the vegetative comprised every type of life.