Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v1.c4.44

v1.c4.44

But in plants and flowers the painters show great interest. On the ceiling of Cave I are panels of decoration in which the motives are plants, fruits, flowers, and animals. Examples are given on Plate XXXIX. Plate XL also reproduces two panels of splendid animal painting; a group of deer, and a pair of bulls fighting, which it is interesting to compare with a famous drawing of the same subject by Tōba Sōjō, the great Japanese draughtsman of the twelfth century. Mr. Yazdani notices the beauty and truth of the rendering of foliage of particular trees, the areca-nut palm and the *aśoka* tree, in the Padmapāṇi fresco. And in the panels reproduced on Plate XXXIX we see actual Indian fruits and flowers of great variety combined with birds or human or fanciful animal forms. The fine decorative invention, drawing richly