A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c20.s3.19

c20.s3.19

On the whole, study of a multitude of examples of the outturn of the Indo-Persian or Mughal school leaves the impression on my mind that its place in the art history of the world is that of a minor, not a major art. The best examples are charming, pretty, graceful, and so forth, but lack greatness. They are all too small to possess the dignity and breadth of large pictures, while they rarely display much imaginative power, and never, or hardly ever, any serious religious emotion. The portraits undoubtedly are perfect in their way, and probably superior to anything of the kind elsewhere in Asia, but the rest of the work of the school falls far below the level of the best Chinese and Japanese painting in poetical expression of emotion and subtle suggestion of things unexpressed.