Elements of Hindu Iconography v1.c7.91

v1.c7.91

In the early sculptures the arrangement of the drapery is very effective and natural. The folds and creases are delicately worked out and the dress is shown to flow freely down the sides and on the person of the figures which it clothes. One cannot deny that there is a certain amount of conventionality in the arrangement of the folds even in the early sculptures; but the conventional mode of the formation and disposal of the folds in the specimens of later workmanship is very strikingly artificial. In the later sculptures, the heavy central folds of the under-garment descend in a sharp conical form down to the ankles, the lower part ending in a point which protrudes somewhat forward. The smaller folds are represented as running across the thighs and the forelegs, and are marked by a couple of deep-cut equi-distant lines slightly curved from above to indicate their descent downwards. On each side of the figure there flows down a portion of the end of another cloth worn as a girdle, which end spreads out in the form of a fan (see the figs. on Pl. XXXV and LV.) The lines representing the minor folds in the drapery of the figures of the mediæval period are less artificial and less unpleasant in effect than those of a still later period.