[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Architecture and art](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art) › [A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.smith-1911) › c19.s5.1 # A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c19.s5.1 A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c19.s5.1 - **Language:** English ### [c19.s5.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.smith-1911.c19.s5.1) The device for breaking the monotony of a wide wall surface by inserting broad bands of white marble, as employed in the fourteenth century on the tomb of Tughlak Shah (\*ante\*, Fig. 234), and a few years earlier on Alā-ud-dīn's gateway (\*ante\*, Fig. 233), was commonly used in the Musalman art of Central Asia, Syria, and Egypt, and was freely adopted for Christian buildings in Italy. In Akbar's time this early severe form of decoration was supplemented by mosaics made up after the Roman and Byzantine fashion from small tesserae, which were combined in Persian geometrical patterns. The great mosque at Fathpur-Sīkrī offers many examples, as for instance the inner architrave of the \*mihrāb\* in Plate C. Sometimes the effect was enhanced by the insertion of little bits of blue or green enamel. - [Previous: c19.s4.18](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.smith-1911.c19.s4.18) - [Next: c19.s5.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.smith-1911.c19.s5.2) - [Up: c19.s5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.smith-1911.c19.s5) ## Linked texts (1) - [Fathpûr Sîkrî](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.fathpur-sikri) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.smith-1911.c19.s5.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.smith-1911.c19.s5.1) · Pramāṇa