A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c16.s7.14

c16.s7.14

The modern craftsmen of many localities in India produce highly ornamental carved work in various styles. That of Mysore and Travancore rises to the level of fine art in the best examples, which are wrought in sandalwood with the utmost freedom of fancy and beauty of execution. Sir George Birdwood (*Industrial Arts*, p. 217) mentions a little cabinet, exhibited by Major Puckle in the Annual International Exhibition of 1871, as being the most beautiful example of Mysore sandalwood carving ever shown in England. The subjects illustrated were mythological. Sir George Watt describes and reproduces as ‘one of the most perfect examples of sandalwood ever produced’ a pierced panel intended as a spandril for a doorway in the new palace at Mysore, the stone sculptures of which have been noticed in Chapter VII of this work. The panel depicts the incident in the life of the youthful Krishna when he stole the clothes of the Gopīs while they were bathing, and carried the garments up into a tree. The basal frieze with its procession of homing cattle is delightful. The whole work is admirably composed, being symmetrical without formality (Plate LXXXII, Fig. A).¹