A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c14.s2.101

c14.s2.101

'The art of Ajaṇṭā,' he observes, 'is characterized by the strong outline which marks the early Asiatic style; the colouring appears to have been heavy and hot; the figures and faces are animated—there is force and individuality in them, a strong sense of life. We feel that the painters were possessed by their subject; they worked with fervour and devotion. . . . This, and the scale of the frescoes, make a forcible and imposing impression. Yet the art of Ajaṇṭā has not passed the primitive stage. With all the feeling for life in individual figures that the painters show, they betray as yet little of that instinct by which an art develops—the instinct