Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v1.c4.9

v1.c4.9

Coming from the study of Chinese art, I had once said that the compositions of the Ajanta painters seemed to me ‘crowded and incoherent’ and their art ‘primitive’, as compared with Chinese art, in spite of the ‘forcible and imposing impression’ they create and ‘the grace, dignity, and character’ of single groups and forms. M. Stchoukine quoted from the first edition of my *Painting in the Far East*, published in 1908: had he turned to the third edition, published in 1923, he would have found that further study of the copies available (actual photographs were not then to be procured) had induced a deeper appreciation, though I imagine he would still disagree with the judgement that ‘the composition is often turbid, and we are left with a sense of splendid struggle rather than of serene mastery’.