A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c15.s3.t1.1

c15.s3.t1.1

The art of Tibet is so closely related to that of Nepāl that the paintings of both countries may be grouped together. The style is a combination of Indian and Chinese characteristics, traceable back to the earlier style of Turkistan, specimens of which have been cited in Section 2 of this chapter (*ante*, pp. 308–12). Nepāl probably imitated Indian painting before Tibet was sufficiently civilized to do so. According to Tāranāth (*ante*, p. 305) the earliest Nepalese school followed the model of the school of the ‘Ancient West’ founded by Sringadhara of Mārwār in the seventh century, while subsequent Nepalese artists inclined rather to favour the methods of the Bengal ‘Eastern’ school of the ninth century. No specimens assignable to either of those periods are now known to be extant, except possibly the miniatures in two MSS. examined by M. Foucher, which may belong to the ‘Eastern’ school. The latest Nepalese artists before Tāranāth’s time in A.D. 1600 are said to have had ‘no special character’. All the existing specimens of Nepalese painting, with the exception of the miniatures in the MSS., apparently are later than the seventeenth century. Most of the extant Tibetan pictures are believed to be not older, but it is not possible to determine exact dates. I have not been able to obtain good examples of Nepalese painting; Tibet, however, supplies a considerable number of works deserving of respectful notice.