The Buddhist Art of Gandhara: The Story of the Early School, its Birth, Growth and Decline c14.4

c14.4

But it would be a mistake to suppose that religious conservatism was the only or, indeed, the chief cause of the nerveless, conventional character of most Gandhara art dating from this period. Another and perhaps more potent cause was the rapidly growing demand for this sculpture which followed the expansion of Buddhism under Kushān patronage and the ever increasing number of stūpas and chapels which then came into being. In such conditions, when quantity is more important than quality, art of any kind, and particularly religious art, is bound to become repetitive and mechanical. Hence it is that in the later work of this mature period we miss almost entirely the signs of individual genius and of that fresh spontaneous artistry that charmed us in the earlier.