Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v4.c15.65

v4.c15.65

To produce the effect of perspective a number of devices have been adopted: for instance, in some places deeper colours have been used for the background, so that the figures painted in front in lighter colours may stand out in relief. Sometimes black dots have been added with the same object, as can be seen in the representation of the Great Bodhisattva in Cave I. The artist in this case has painted the head of the Bodhisattva in golden brown, and the long hair, which falls on his shoulders, in jet black. The effect of perspective is further enhanced by a deep green background, the darkness of which has been increased by small black dots.¹ The idea of perspective is better suggested in another scene in Cave I, in which the drawing and colours of the steps and rows of pillars show the inmates of the two pavilions in different appropriate planes.² It is true that the drawing of hills as represented by red or other colour bands is conventional in the extreme, and similar conventionality is to be found sometimes in the case of architectural forms; but the charge that the artists of Ajanta did not understand perspective is not justified, for the drawing of the round pavilion in Cave XVI, in which the birth of the Buddha is shown, is perfect in this respect.³