A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c17.31

c17.31

Other motives must be discussed more briefly. At Amarāvatī and in Gandhāra a favourite subject is the departure of Gautama Buddha as Prince Siddhārtha from Kapilavastu on horseback. Generally the horse is shown in profile, but occasionally is represented as emerging from a gateway, and facing the spectator, fore-shortened. This latter form of the design especially seems to be connected with the Rider motive as seen in the Barberini ivory diptych in the Louvre, of the fourth century, and in one of the Aachen panels, the origin of both being traced back by Strzygowski to the Egyptian representations of Horus triumphing over the powers of evil represented by a crocodile.