Indian Sculpture c8.46

c8.46

The densely packed composition is devoid of the flowing and free linear rhythm of the other reliefs (Figs. 15–17, 21, 24). Hard and contiguous, like buttons stitched on a pasteboard, the single figures are disciplined by the horizontal and vertical schematism of the frame. While they submit to it, they are loaded with an energy, which in this particular panel is focussed on the right side, from where it urges upward as well as downward, along the upper and lowermost rows of heads, threatening to disrupt the seemingly static quiet of the scene.