Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

2 .4
2.4
THE EVOLUTION
OF ARTISTIC CULTURE
AND THE DEVELOPMENT
OF STATES
Through the ages, art, like many other aspects of political, public
and cultural life, has also reflected the features and patterns of the development of
states. We can see this most clearly in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and Western Asia,
where the development of statehood and culture, especially art, followed parallel
courses, as they evolved from primary, rudimentary forms of city-states to despotic,
powerful monarchies. Similarly, artistic and cultural expression developed over time
from rudimentary forms to the grandiose monumental art designed to impress lesser
mortals with the greatness and divine nature of the Pharaohs and Shahanshahs who
commissioned them.
In other words, a given stage in the development of a state corresponds to
a particular level of development of the arts: an embryonic stage of statehood
corresponds to primitive forms of art, usually more decorative than fine arts, while
a more evolved stage of statehood goes hand-in-hand with more developed forms of
art, at times of a very high level. During so-called ‘transitional phases’, which generally
followed the collapse of great empires and were usually accompanied by socioeconomic,
social and other upheavals, artistic expression seems to have reverted to
primitive forms again, although there are sometimes exceptions to this pattern.
The development of official art has to a large extent been determined by state
policy. This was true in antiquity and largely remains true today, although at times
artistic consciousness leads artists to seek and realise new artistic directions that are
independent of official policy.
Unlike in the case of the Near and Middle East, until recently, we had no written
evidence from Central Asia of the dominant role played by state politics in the
arts. However, the discovery of the Rabatak inscription, in which the Kushan king
69