A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c15.s3.t1.6

c15.s3.t1.6

I dissent strongly from the enthusiastic praise bestowed upon Tibetan art by Mr. Havell. The banner of Buddha Amitābha (his Plate XLIX),² described as 'splendid in drawing, colour, and composition', strikes me as a hard, lifeless piece of formalism, in which the features of the principal figure are barely indicated. The assertion that the hideous, sprawling, eight-armed deity and his attendants which form the subject of Mr. Havell's Plate LI are 'full of spirituality and the most refined artistic feeling' seems to my judgement to be wholly without justification. In the small figure of Asoka at the top of the same plate (enlarged as Plate L) the critic sees 'shining through Chinese and Tibetan superstitions, a reflection of the spirituality of the art of Ajantā, and some of the true sentiment of Indian art which inspired the sculptures of Boro-Būdūr'. My eyes see formal, mechanically drawn contours, a featureless face, and fingers like hooks. But the colouring, as usual, is harmonious and pleasing.