Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v2.c8.s1.18

v2.c8.s1.18

chief delight is in decoration. Whether he is depicting flowers or birds or animals or even human beings, his love of ornamentation is apparent. The beautiful lotus-flowers, the lovely geese, the richly caparisoned horses and elephants, and the charming jewellery, coiffures, and poses of the women, all show the painter’s extreme fondness for adornment. In general, however, the paintings of this cave have not the nobility of treatment which characterizes such a subject as ‘The Padmapāṇi’ or ‘The Bhikshu at a Palace Door’ in the frescoes of Cave I, and from this difference one may assign an interval of fifty years between the dates of the frescoes in the two caves.