Maurya and Shunga Art c7.10

c7.10

A comparison with the vigorously striding bull on the abacus of the Sarnath column is at once suggested. Here the bull is rendered with all the tension and accentuation of muscles, of veins and bones that a vigorous movement brings into play; the sense of linear rhythm and plasticity of volume are also fully in evidence; the execution is also clear and precise. But it is at the same time hard to deny that the entire treatment is conventional inasmuch as the muscles are unduly exaggerated, the tension in movement ever-emphasised and the modelling coagulated. A different aesthetic vision and tradition are indeed at work here.