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

THE GUPTA PERIOD 229
of several continuous traditions. The traditions
out of which it developed are mainly the entirely
Indian school of Mathura, and the Greco-
Roman art of the north-west frontier. All Gupta
sculpture, regardless of its place of manufacture,
is marked by a finished mastery in execution and
a majestic serenity in expression that have
167. Standing Buddha from Mathura.
Calcutta, Indian Museum **~
seldom been equalled in any other school of art.
We may take as a typical example, to illustrate
what we might call the processes leading to the
emergence of Gupta sculpture, any one of the
images of Buddha carved at Mathura from the
fourth century onwards [167]. From Hsiiantsang's
description of this former Kushan
capital there can be no doubt that the city continued
as a flourishing centre of Buddhism. The
fifth-century Buddha from Mathura differs
from the early Kushan effigies of Sakyamuni in
showing the Teacher entirely covered by the
monastic garment. This in itself may be
regarded as an iconographical borrowing from
Gandhara. The style of the drapery bears a
a marked resemblance to certain late Gandhara
Buddhas; what were once realistically
represented
Classical folds have been reduced to a
series of strings, symbolically representing the
ridges of the folds, that clothe the body in a net
of parallel loops following the median line of the
figure. In the Mathura Buddhas the rather hard
conventionalization of the late Gandhara
drapery formula has been reworked into a
rhythmic pattern quite apart from its descriptive
function; that is, the repetition of the loops
of the string-like drapery provides a kind of
relief to the static columnar mass of the body.
This is the final development of a formula already
noted in the Buddhas of the Later Andhra
Period. The conception of the actual form of the
Buddha is entirely Indian. We note a perpetuation
of the heaviness and volume of the early
Kushan Buddhas: this quality, together with
the commanding height of the figures, conveys
a feeling of awesome dignity and power. It is
notable, however, that the archaic crudeness of