A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c15.s7.7

c15.s7.7

The decadent art of the eighteenth century was liberally patronized by the pious king, Kīrti Srī Rāya Simha, who reigned from A.D. 1747 to 1778. The extant *jātaka* pictures then painted on the walls of the Ridī Vihāra and at Degal-doruva by Silva-tenna and other artists certainly are extremely effective as decoration, even if they cannot be ranked as high art. Dr. Coomaraswamy has given, in the frontispiece to his valuable work on the eighteenth-century art of the island, a brilliant reproduction of a processional scene by Silva-tenna. The composition strangely resembles the Egyptian wall-paintings, the figures being all drawn in profile, in the most formal conventional style. Most of them are depicted of golden colour, marching across a bright red ground.¹ Many similar paintings, possibly of less merit, exist elsewhere.²