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

BUDDHIST ART IN TURKESTAN I
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sanctuaries. As at Bamiyan, a number of distinct
styles are represented, and there is no positive
indication that they should be divided into a
strict chronological sequence. It is just as likely
that they were all executed more or less contemporaneously
by craftsmen of varying stylistic
backgrounds.
The earliest of the styles may best be studied
in the decorations, datable by an inscription of
the early sixth century, in the Cave of the
Painter. This is essentially a provincial Indian
manner of painting. The svelte and languorous
forms in the panel from the Cave of the Painter
[130] emanate the same sensuous warmth and
grace that we find in the more truly Indian
wall-paintings, such as the medallions in the
niche of the one-hundred-and-seventy-fivefoot
Buddha at Bamiyan. The heavy, plastic
shading, characteristic of Indian painting, is
largely absent in this technique, and the colour
scheme, limited to dark reds and browns and
malachite green, lacks the richness and tonal
range of the famous Indian murals at Ajanta,
but closely approximates to the colours of the
Bamiyan paintings.
A second Indian manner - or a variant of the
first
which we have already seen exemplified
in the Bodhisattvas painted on the vault above
the one-hundred-and-seventy-five-foot Buddha
at Bamiyan, is to be seen in numerous
examples of paintings from Kizil, such as the
specimen from the Treasure Cave in illustration
131. The dancing figure in our detail presents
the closest possible comparison with the sakti at
Bamiyan [122]. It is characterized by the use of
an arbitrary scheme of chiaroscuro, whereby the
contours of the figures and the interior drawing
of the flesh parts are heavily reinforced by
broad lines of orange pigment. In some figures
at Kizil the result looks like a schematic reduction
to abstract terms of the heavily muscled
anatomy of classical paintings of Herakles [132].
This second Central Asian style has been
defined bv the German scholars as Indo-
131. Kizil, Treasure Cave,
wall-painting of female figure