A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c17.21

c17.21

In Greek art it occurs in the fourth century b.c., a century or two before its first appearance in India at Bharhut. The Hellenistic artists transported the motive to Egypt, where, by reason of contact with native Egyptian sensual notions, its treatment acquired a lascivious tinge, agreeing strangely with the Mathurā presentation, the nude figure, however, in Egypt being often male instead of female. M. Strzygowski gives the name of Copto-Alexandrian to the mixed or mongrel art produced by the intermingling of Hellenic and Coptic ideas. The art of Gandhāra does not share with that of Mathurā the reproach of lasciviousness. It deserves credit, as M. Foucher points out, for its 'irréprochable tenue' in dealing with the relations of the sexes.³