The Hindu Temple v2.c12.86

v2.c12.86

The second compositional movement in space connects the hand in the foreground, placed at the same height as the end of the scarf, with the end of the chignon on top; and with the left heel of the goddess; either of these are near to the middle ground of the relief. The compositional directions link the salient points in space of the image, across the depth of the carving, and connect its various levels amongst each other. This organisation in space is caught in a lozenge-net of diagonal lines which have their two main corners in the middle line of the image drawn at the end of the scarf, and across the hand and a loop of the hip-ornament, on the right, the one at the left tip of the scarf the other in the hand. The two other corners of the central compositional lozenge coincide, the upper with the meeting point of elbow and scarf and the lower with the point where the other end of the scarf emerges just below the knee. The meeting of elbow and scarf and also the place of the knee are the critical compositional points. They play moreover their rôle in the physiognomy of the form of the image, with its acuteness of the sharp bend in the elbow of the elephantine arm, and, similar in its over-emphasis, the stretched straightness of the legs which makes them appear jointless, more poles than legs were it not for the swelling curves of the thighs.