Indian Sculpture c7.s1.4

c7.s1.4

It is for this reason, too, that metal and stone, wood and clay are treated—with the necessary exceptions, for instance, the earliest clay figurines—more or less in the same way, irrespective of their special structure and its demands. The actual material as an individual instance, that is, as far as it is gross matter, has to be overcome so that what is alive in it—and there is life in every stone, etc.—may enter into a novel substance, i.e. one conforming with the artistic experience itself. Just as the material, so also the appearance of all objects translated into plastic form is moulded with a certain similarity. The outline characteristically circumscribes each type represented; the modelled surface, of which it is but the limit, if imagined without it, would lack distinction. Thus it keeps within limits, which give it a name, be it that of god, human figure, elephant or tree. What brings about the possibility of that limit, while at the same time filling it, is nameless. It is not conditioned by anything perceived. It is an immediate expression of the creative urge.