Indian Sculpture c8.34

c8.34

The flat relief with a minimum of modelling lays stress on a sharp and energetical linear movement. Its impulse produces the peculiar shape of the animal; the circular turn of the neck, for instance, conditions the curve of the beak in order to fulfil itself; this again provokes corresponding counter movements, such as those of the lower jaw, mane and horns, and their balance in the line of tail and hind leg. This intent linearism has its roots elsewhere than those of ancient Indian sculpture. It is of northern, i.e. Āryan, lineage. The sorrowing woman (Fig. 11), however, is an amalgam of the two heterogeneous trends.