A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c19.3

c19.3

The orthodox Muslim decorator has found himself in practice constrained to restrict his invention to the dexterous use of calligraphy, geometrical patterns, and floral devices. However varied in detail the application of those elements may be, the effect is necessarily flat and somewhat monotonous. The distinction between Fine Art and the Industrial or Applied Arts, therefore, as observed in the Introduction (*ante*, p. 1), almost vanishes in relation to Musalman decorative art, the designs of which for the most part can be readily repeated by trained craftsmen.