The Hindu Temple v2.c11.s1.20

v2.c11.s1.20

In belts around the body of the temple, and in vertical sequences where one image is superimposed on the other, the figures are part of the space-body of which the outside of the monument, the Prāsāda, consists. They do not form groups except such as are unavoidable by their juxtaposition on symmetrical and repeated offsets and recesses. They do not enter into any 'composition' which would extend further than the single buttress or beyond the console on which the image is placed (Pls. III, XLIV, LXXI). If more than one figure are part of the image they are carved in front of a single surface, they are collateral, auxiliary to its meaning and complete its form. This is how the single images whether they consist of one, or of several figures in front of the single facets, or in their niches, have their own wholeness as works of art (Pls. III, VI, XV, XXX, LXXI). Over and above such perfection as these images or groups may have compositionally a further power is vested in them. They are not 'pillar figures' as those of the doorways of Gothic cathedrals; they do not function architecturally; the stress of weight and support is unknown to their constitution. No aspiration moreover draws them upward, for each has its place and this it occupies with effortless grace and exuberance of modelled form. The final sculptural integument of the temple is dynamically one with the monumental progression of its mass. From it the figures step forth with a driving power not altogether their own. While they are images they are at the same time the ultimate conclusion of that part of the wall to which they give its highest accent. Where however they turn towards the wall they illustrate their oneness with its intrinsic movement on which they lean as their support (Pls. XIX, XX).