Maurya and Shunga Art c7.11

c7.11

The Sarnath quadripartite is architectonically on a most superior level and must be admitted to be a very successful solution of a problem the Maurya artists grappled with from the very beginning. Of all Maurya sculptures it is the most well-known, most highly spoken of and reproduced on most occasions. Marshall is justified in saying that "the Sarnath capital, though by no means a masterpiece, is the product of the most developed art of which the world was cognisant in the third century B. C.—the handiwork of one who had generations of artistic effort and experience behind him. In the masterful strength of the crowning lions, with their swelling veins and tense muscular development, and in the spirited realism of the reliefs below, there is no trace of primitive art. So far as naturalism was in, the sculptor modelled his figures direct from nature, and has delineated their forms with bold, faithful touch...Equally mature is the technique of his relief work." ⁴⁴ But at the same time it must not be lost sight of that the entire conception and execution are conventional from beginning to end. Compositionally the accumulation of form of the four semi-lions is schematic, though from consideration of technique clever and efficient. The veins and muscles are over emphasised, and with all their seeming tenseness and bold delineation appear lifeless and conventional. The heads with gaping mouths and curved moustaches treated conventionally are more decorative and ornamental than endowed with life; the same is true of the manes treated conventionally and arranged schematically. The extravagance of form saps the life out of the object that it represents, though from the point of view of technique the art is fully developed and civilised and its appearance conscious and sophisticated.