Indian Sculpture c8.263

c8.263

How relatively little the material matters in the plastic conception is illustrated by this image, which, although of a higher artistic quality than most of the stone images of the Pāla school of the ninth century,²³⁴ shares their characteristics. Body and ornaments clearly belong to two separate categories. (Figs. 97 and 98 may be viewed against Figs. 112 and 113, where body and ornaments belong to one inseparable plastic conception.) In either case, the ornaments of the metal image are more precisely wrought and conspicuous than in the stone images of the same art-province and of the same age. But this relatively small difference is one of degree only, and is but a slight concession to the material. But stone and metal images of one and the same art-province have their distinct features in common, even if they are not of the same age. In the hierarchy of determining factors, the constant element of the art-province stands foremost. Next to it is the chronological factor. The art-provinces carry its successive modifications. The material can hardly be considered a determining factor. Only the slightest concessions are made to it; metal images from eastern India are different from those of the south, in the same manner and to the same degree as the stone carvings of the two provinces.