A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c3.3

c3.3

The rough distinction drawn between Fine Art and the Industrial Arts, and the question of the existence of Fine Art in India, which some critics deny, are discussed in the Introduction. The main topics dealt with in this volume are Sculpture and Painting. Architecture is a subject too big for full treatment in a general history of Fine Art. Students who wish to pursue the investigation of Indian Architecture must still read special treatises, especially Fergusson's classical work in the new edition. In Chapters II and XII merely outline sketches of the leading Hindu and Muhammadan styles respectively are offered. Chapters III–VII give a continuous and tolerably full history of Hindu sculpture—the term Hindu including Jain and Buddhist. Muhammadan sculpture, chiefly decorative, is discussed in Chapter XIII. Chapters VIII, IX, and XIV, if read together, present a history of Indian Painting in considerable detail. A selection of specially artistic Hindu minor works, which cannot be ranged under the heads of Sculpture or Painting, is described in Chapter X. I have found it convenient to treat Foreign Influences on Hindu Art separately in Chapter XI.