Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice older book in good condition. Some tanning wear and marking due to age. Plates bright and vivid.. Year 1960. Hardcover. English. See images for condition.

About the book >.>.> Society in fact was very much aware of household gods and sensed that paint-ing might well be a form of sympathetic magic. It pleased both gods and nature-spirits and by prompting fertility and prosperity “augmented future good.” Its esthetic and emotional qualities could give both conscious and unconscious pleasure “delight the mind and cure the evils of bad dreams”) and in this respect it approached a theory of art which is not so very different from our own. All these functions persisted into the Middle Ages and the existence in modern India of painted bridal-chambers and palace picture-galleries (the latter in many cases synonymous with royal bedrooms) proves how important a role painting must have filled in private life. Wall-painting in its very nature however is precarious. Buildings are apt to be destroyed and indeed it is only in very exceptional circumstances that a mural can be separated from a wall. Moreover without constant renovation as we know from rococo churches in Europe walls lose their glamour. Despite their very great prestige then only a small number of Indian murals have remained and it is to the construction of cave-temples by the Buddhists that we owe the existence of such important works of art as the chief frescoes of Ajanta and Bagh (fifth and sixth centuries). Although much damaged by trees animals and damp cave-temples have sturdily survived and thus the first ingredients of Indian painting can be studied. By contrast the Indian miniature presents a new situation. Small in scale it was often held in the hand and was thus essentially portable. Dangers such as those from fire water and white-ants confronted it but its safety was independent of build-ings. It has thus survived in large quantities and although no Indian miniatures are earlier than the eleventh century their numbers and variety provide an essential clue to the Indian mind. (OS)