Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v2.c77.263

v2.c77.263

Cultivation of Fine Arts has been common in all the great civilisations. It is said that all civilisations meet one another on the common plane of art. Nevertheless their artistic creations do differ in some fundamental respects. The two fundamentally different civilisations of the world are Oriental and Occidental or the Eastern and the Western ones. Indian art, be it painting or music, architecture or sculpture, is a class by itself. India's culture being more spiritualistic than materialistic, naturally all her arts are imbedded in its philosophy. Indian artist is a philosopher first and artist afterwards. Percy Brown has attempted some distinguishing characteristics of both these eastern and western ideals of painting and they are worth reproducing here.