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

CEYLON
382
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AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA
painting; but beyond a certain felicity in the
carving of architectural details on some of the
kandy temples, nothing of real artistic worth
was produced after the Renaissance under
Parakrama Bahu I.
It is with regret that we leave the subject of
art in Ceylon, an art which, over a period of
more than fifteen hundred years, reveals great
vigour and exquisite taste in architecture,
sculpture, and painting, a marvellous integration
that can scarcely be matched anywhere
in the Buddhist world. The best of the architecture
and the best of the sculpture have a truly
classic quality of balance and perfection and
constitute final models of technical probity.
What must be one of the earliest examples of the
decorative arts in Ceylon is a carnelian seal from
the Yatthala dagaba, which has been dated
from the third to the second century B.C. [312].
Represented on this gem is a king seated on a
wicker throne. The nude figure in its elegant
and attenuated proportions suggests the earliest
style of Amaravati as represented by the reliefs
from Jaggayyapeta [34]. Wicker chairs of a
similar type make their appearance both in
Kushan and Amaravati carvings of the early
centuries of our era.
312 (left). Carnelian seal from the Yatthala dagaba.
Manchester, Museum
313. Ivory plaque with Rati from Ceylon.
Cambridge, Mass., Fogg Art Museum