A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c15.s3.t1.3

c15.s3.t1.3

Tibetan painting is generally more a matter of skilled craftsmanship than of fine art. The canonical process of manufacture has been fully described by Godwin Austen, who explains in detail the way in which a figure of Buddha is built up. The draughtsman, who hardly deserves to be called an artist, starts by drawing a long vertical rectangle, within which are inscribed a medial perpendicular line and sundry horizontal parallels at prescribed distances. The different organs of the body are then plotted out for insertion at certain intersections of the lines. For example, the face is plotted from the starting-point determined by the intersection of the medial perpendicular with the transverse line No. 17. The remaining parts of the body are worked out in a similar way, and other sacred objects, such as a *stūpa* (*chorten*, or *dāgaba*) are imaged on like principles.¹ Travellers tell us that the monks of the Greek communities at Mount Athos manufacture the sacred ikons in an equally mechanical fashion. It is obvious that such a practice is fatal to the development of creative art in the representation of objects of worship.