Indian Sculpture c8.243

c8.243

These three types, heterogeneous in origin and incongruous in effect, tell their own fate. The first, with its geometrical and clear-cut colourism, is alien to the plastic conception and is thoroughly mediæval. Such devices had begun to be used by the sixth century (Fig. 107 and Ajaṇṭā, painted borders on ceilings). The second type, full of figure, human and animalic, and of a melting sinuosity of the plastic texture, is rooted in classical tradition; and the third is a compromise between the two. This also applies to the bracket figure. Its affinity with that of Hiraṇyakaśipu (Fig. 89) is obvious as far as the curvature of the body or the sharpness and vehemence of the angles of the joints are concerned. But in the bracket figure, on the whole, the classical component prevails, i.e. the principle of curved continuity, whereas in Fig. 89 straight line, angle and plane dominate.