Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v1.c4.36

v1.c4.36

More than one writer has remarked on the likeness of the Ajanta paintings to early Italian frescoes. I do not think that this is more than a general affinity, which would show at the same time several points of contrast. The empirical perspective common to much Oriental art and the medieval art of Europe, before the ‘scientific’ perspective of the Renaissance, based on independent study, supplanted it; a somewhat similar, though not identical, technical procedure; the representation of two or more successive episodes of a story in the same composition; the spontaneous invention; the religious inspiration; these are the main points of likeness.