AESTHETICS-II

20FAT-252
DAMANPREET KAUR
20BFA1051
 INTRODUCTION
 The cultural heritage of India is one of the richest and most ancient in the world,
rivalled only by Chinese art. The art of sculpture, the most highly respected medium
for artists, was widely practised throughout the subcontinent, and buildings were
profusely adorned with it. The subject matter of Indian sculpture was almost invariably
abstracted human forms that were portrayed to instruct people in the truths of the
Hindu Buddhist or Jain religions. Painting in India typically concerned religious deities
and kings and was influenced in style by Chinese painting as well as the art of Ancient
Persia and other countries from middle and central Asia, as well as Greece. Painting in
India encompasses Buddhist murals in the Ajanta caves and the Brihadisvara Temple,
to the large frescoes of Ellora to the miniaturist tradition of Mughal, to the mixed-
media embellished works from the Tanjore school. The paintings from Gandhar-Taxila
are influenced by Persia to the west, while the eastern style of Indian painting - taking
inspiration from Indian mythology, grew up around the Nalanda school of art.
Indian civilization is also a rich source of architecture and architectural styles, one of
its more minor examples being the famous Taj Mahal. Please Note: for important dates
in the evolution of Asian culture, see: Chinese Art Timeline (18,000 BCE - present).
 SCULPTURES IN INDIA
 There is almost no individuality in Indian sculpture, because figures are conceived of
as shapes that are more perfect than any to be found in human models.
 Sculpting in India dates from the Indus Valley civilization of 2500-1800 BCE, when
small items of bronze sculpture and terracotta sculpture were produced. An early
masterpiece is The Dancing Girl of Mohenjo-Daro (c.2500-2000 BCE, National
Museum, New Delhi), arguably the finest surviving statuette of the Indus Valley
culture. This was followed by the great circular stone pillars and carved lions of the
Maurya period (c. 250 BCE), and the mature Indian gigurative sculpture of the second
and first centuries BCE, in which Hindu and Buddhist themes were already well
established. (For 2nd millennium arts in China, see Shang Dynasty art c.1600-1000
BCE.) A wide range of sculptural styles subsequently emerged in different parts of
India over succeeding centuries, but by 900 CE Indian plastic art had reached a form
that has lasted with little change up to modern times. This sculpture is distinguished
not by a sense of plastic fullness but rather by its linear character: the figure is
conceived from the standpoint of its outline, and typically is graceful and slender with
supple limbs. From 900 CE onwards, this sculpture was used mainly as architectural
decoration with huge numbers of relatively small figures of mediocre quality being
produced for this purpose .
 PAINTING IN INDIA
 There is no one style of painting in India. Geography, climate, local
cultural traditions, demographics all help to shape art along regional
lines. Also, outside artistic influences are more strongly felt in border
regions. Not surprisingly therefore, Indian painting is a complex
patchwork of differing styles, with different approaches to both figure
drawing and figure painting.
 BAGH CAVES
 The Bagh Caves are a group of nine rock-cut monuments, situated among the
southern slopes of the Vindhyas in Bagh town of Dhar district in Madhya Pradesh state
in central India.[1] These monuments are located at a distance of 97 km from Dhar town.
These are renowned for mural paintings by master painters of ancient India. The use of
the word "cave" is a bit of a misnomer, since these are not natural, but instead
examples of Indian rock-cut architecture.
 The Bagh caves, like those at Ajanta, were excavated by master craftsmen on
perpendicular sandstone rock face of a hill on the far bank of a seasonal stream, the
Baghani. Buddhist in inspiration, of the nine caves, only five have survived. All of them
are 'viharas' or resting places of monks monasteries having quadrangular plan. A small
chamber, usually at the back, forms the 'chaitya', the prayer hall. Most significant of
these five extant caves is the Cave 4, commonly known as the Rang Mahal (Palace of
Colors).
 The Bagh Caves were quarried in the 5th -6th century AD, in the very late stages of
Buddhism in India, and long after most of the Indian Buddhist Caves had been built,
many of them since the 2nd or 1st centuries BCE.
 BAGH CAVES
This scene shows two groups of women
musicians. The first group has seven women
standing around an eighth figure. This central
figure wears a peculiar dress and therefore is
identified with a person of foreign origin,
most probably a Persian. He wears a long-
sleeve tunic, greenish with white dots and
striped trousers. Out of the seven women
musicians around him, one holds a drum,
three are holding little sticks, two each, and
the rest three are holding cymbals. The one
with drum is shown without clothes down
waist. In front of the group is a bench or
couch, blue stripped with white cushions of
cylindrical form.
The second group us partitioned from the
previous one with the help of a green colored
wall with a white coping. The second group
of musicians consists of six women standing
around a seventh man of foreign origin as
the previous scene. This central male figure
wears a long black tunic and striped trousers
and sports long black locks. Out of the six
women musicians, one is holding a drum,
two with cymbals and the rest three are
holding sticks, a pair each.
Indus Valley
Priest-King
The above image is the photograph of a
sculpture from the Harappan Civilisation.
Historians have deduced that the man
represented was a Priest-King owing to
the adornments carved on him. This gives
us information about the structure of
society and their customs and practices.