The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

AFGHANISTAN [
79
Bamiyan is like the style of Simone Martini in
Italy compared to the work of his followers in
the Palais des Papes at Avignon.
The completely Indian female figure [122]
standing beside one of the Bodhisattvas of the
vault is probably a sakti or female counterpart of
the divinity - a certain indication of the
influence of Hindu concepts in late Buddhist
art. The figure is entirely nude, except for
earrings and bangles. The elegance of gesture
huang. 19 This style in Bamiyan cannot be
described as purely Indian because certain
details, such as the foliate motifs of the Bodhisattva's
throne, are ultimately of Gandhara
origin, and the flying ribbons of the head-dress
are definitely Sasanian.
Although, as we have just seen in the analysis
of the paintings in the niche of the Great
Buddha, all the styles at Bamiyan are hybrid in
character, it is possible to find yet a third
[23. Bamiyan, Group E, painting on vault -£, y)
reminds us of the Begram ivories, and the
shading is of the same arbitrary type described
above. As we shall find presently, this provincial
Indian style at Bamiyan spread to the Buddhist
centres of Central Asia, and examples of it may
be found even in the earliest wall-paintings at
the Chinese Buddhist monastery at Tunmanner,
which from its resemblance to paintings
at Kizil and other sites in Turkestan may be
described as pure Central Asian. We may take
as an example the Bodhisattva painted over
the head of a now ruined Buddha statue in the
principal cave of Group E [123]. The figure of
the Bodhisattva, like the Pantokrator of Roman-