A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c7.4

c7.4

In the Muhammadan decorative designs treated in Chapter XIII the distinction usually vanishes, and strict logic might demand the exclusion of such works. But most readers would feel that a book on Indian Art which refused to take notice of the beautiful decoration of the Mughal period was incomplete, and it is practically impossible to ignore the subject. It is, however, true that nearly all the Muhammadan decorative work can be reproduced perfectly by sufficiently skilled artisans to any extent desired, whereas a copy of a work of genuine Fine Art is never quite equal to the original. Perhaps the copying test might be accepted as the criterion to distinguish between Fine Art and Industrial Art; but, without insisting on the application of any precise formula, I am convinced that there is a real distinction between the two things, and that, even in India, it can be demarcated with sufficient precision in both Sculpture and Painting, the two arts which form my main subject.