the frescos ajanta

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The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs. http://www.jstor.org The Frescos of Ajantà Author(s): Christiana J. Herringham Source: The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 17, No. 87 (Jun., 1910), pp. 134+136-139 Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/858243 Accessed: 28-03-2015 09:30 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. This content downloaded from 202.41.10.30 on Sat, 28 Mar 2015 09:30:45 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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  • The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to TheBurlington Magazine for Connoisseurs.

    http://www.jstor.org

    The Frescos of Ajant Author(s): Christiana J. Herringham Source: The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 17, No. 87 (Jun., 1910), pp. 134+136-139Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/858243Accessed: 28-03-2015 09:30 UTC

    Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

    JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of contentin a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

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  • King Edward VII knowledge of the works of art in his palaces, and an affectionate interest in them. There were few pleasures which His Majesty more obviously enjoyed than personally conducting his friends and guests over his palace and pointing out the chief objects of artistic and historical interest.

    A royal collection inevitably absorbs many objects of which the artistic value is slight, but which have a personal, historical or sentimental association which justifies their retention. To these feelings King Edward VII was extremely sensitive, and he was always anxious to inquire into the history and origin of such relics. By special permission of His Majesty, a series of' Notes on Pictures and Works of Art in

    the Royal Collections' has been appearing in our pages.

    King Edward VII extended his royal patronage to many bodies and associations connected with the practice and promotion of the fine arts, but this patronage was never extended until the King had satisfied himself beforehand that the object in view was one of national and public interest. The King's sympathetic interest in the National Gallery and the National Art Collections Fund will be fresh in the minds of our readers. Many other in- stances could be given of the quiet and un- ostentatious way in which King Edward VII strove to assist the cause of the fine arts in his dominions.

    THE FRESCOS OF AJANTA c BY CHRISTIANA J. HERRINGHAM '

    HE chaityas of Ajanta, which closely resemble apsed churches, and the ancient viharas, or monastery halls, are excavated in a great scarp of a grey volcanic rock.(amyg- daloidal trap) in the wide ravine which has been dug

    out by the torrent Waghora, a stream of consider- able volume in the rains, but normally only a series of quiet pools among shelving boulders. Ajanth is in the jagir, or fief, of Sir Salar Jung, in the extreme north-west of the state of Hydera- bad, Deccan.

    I first visited Ajantai in 19o6, and brought back a small water-colour sketch of some colossal figures. Mr. Binyon, to whom I showed this, was so much impressed that I was encouraged in the notion of returning and making some careful specimen copies, in the hope that this might lead to a more fully organized expedition which could undertake a complete record.

    Through the kindness of influential friends here and in India, representations were made to the Hyderabad Government which led to their provid- ing me with a protected camp, for Ajanta is in the best shikair or hunting district in the jagir. This Government also provided me with two young men, trained in the School of Art in Bombay, and several young Indian artists from Calcutta joined us. Thus it seemed best to consider that we were ourselves at work on that record which I had only

    thought of as a later possibility. I hope we may continue the work next winter.

    The entrances to the 'Caves,' as they are called, are from a path of varying level, not less than 1oo feet above the water. They follow the natural semi-circular sweep of the cliff. It is fine wild scenery. The name 'Cave,' which is applied in India to all these ancient excavated shrines of the Buddhist, Jain and early Hindu faiths, is very misleading. They are all imitations of structural building in a very advanced stage of development, and though Ellora boasts the grandest halls, some of those at Ajanth are very fine.

    The dates of the paintings at Ajanta cannot be fixed with absolute certainty. There is a mutilated inscription outside Cave 16 which mentions some kings of the Vakataka dynasty, and it would seem that the son of a minister of one of these caused this vihara to be excavated. One of the Seoni copper-plate inscriptions records a grant of land to a Brahman priest by a king, Pravara Sena, of this same Vakataka dynasty, and mentions a marriage of one of the kings with a princess of the Imperial Gupta line; the name Pravara Sena also occurs in the Cave-inscription ; but since on the Seoni copper-plate there are two kings of this name, and since in the Cave-inscription many names are missing, it is not possible to get a reliable synthesis. Mr. Vincent Smith, whom I have consulted, is of opinion that Caves 16 and 17 are approximately of the year 500 A.D. There is a very little painting at Ellora in the great hall in

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  • The Frescos of Ajantr the cliff left by the hollowing out round the temple of Kailas, which seems to be of the same character as what I should call the earlier painting of Caves 16 and 17. The Kailas excavations are, I believe, thought to have been begun in 725 A.D. The painting may or may not have been executed immediately on the completion of the architectural work of a Cave. Mr. Vincent Smith, however, endorses the arguments of Professor Collins and Biihler as to the age of the Caves 16 and 17 in preference to Fleet's later date of the seventh century, because they agree better with the archi- tecture and palaeography, and with other dynastic histories. One style of painting might have continued during a considerable period.

    The existing fresco painting is in the great halls or viharas 16,' 17, I and 2, and in chaityas 9 and io. There are a few other unimportant fragments. Chaitya 9 is of very ancient construction, possibly nearly 2oo B.C. It is scarcely conceivable that the painting is so old. At the back of the apse there is a Buddha preaching to disciples, which, except for wilful damage, is in extremely good preserva- tion. It is simple and fine, and has certainly affinity with the early period. Chaitya io is of somewhat later date; no painting remains there, except the erect Buddha or Bodhisatva figures on the columns.2 The later painting in Caves 16 and 17 apparently represents the normal work of this Indian school. In Cave 16, slightly the earlier, nearly everything is obscured, but in Cave 17 many interesting subjects still remain intelligible. Caves i and 2 are among the latest, and contain very fine painting, wherein much change of style is evident.

    The Ajantai cave paintings have hitherto been described as the result of a single undertaking, but in reality they fall into about six distinct groups, representing various schools and periods, rather than the steady development of one school. The scale varies from much over life-size to what one may roughly call quarter-life.

    The condition of the frescos also varies. There are still subjects which are undamaged and un- faded, while others which were copied by Major Gill and Mr. Griffiths have ceased to exist. Burgess says that some of these were destroyed wilfully. But as Caves I, 2 and 17 are nearly covered with painting, some not much damaged, and as these halls measure about 65 feet square, what remains is a not inconsiderable quantity. It is unfortunate that Gill or Griffiths varnished most of the frescos to brighten the colours for the purpose of copying. This varnish is now dirty and yellow, and has seriously spoiled the pictures. The finest work of all has, strange to say, escaped this disfigure- ment. It is on the wall to the left of the shrine in Cave I, usually considered one of the latest Caves.

    The subject of the fresco may perhaps be Gautama Buddha (half-tone plate),3 the prince standing and stooping somewhat, as he looks out on the world which he is about to enter, with an expression of profound pity on his face. He wears a high, jewelled head-dress and a loincloth, and holds in his right hand a blue lotus. There are other per- sonages round him, one of them a queen; all have fine expressive features. The figure of the queen, which is nude to the hips, is full and fine in form, with a natural, not attenuated, waist. The dignity and reposeful treatment of these figures, their large design and noble characterization equal in grandeur the finer statues of Egyptian kings. The flesh tones of the prince are pale and silvery. The queen is nearly black. In the general colouring, sober reds and some vivid pale blues and good bluish greens are introduced among greys, browns and whites. The effect is rich and quiet. The outlines are firm and well modulated. This painting must presumably be placed before the year 750, the latest possible date for Buddhistic work, and it is probably Ioo years earlier. It is not altogether without affinity to the early Brahman alto-relievos in the hall behind the little Kailas at Ellora, but it is free from such symbolism as additional arms and hands. Were it not that the Cave must be a late one, I should probably have been inclined to see lingering classic influence in the fine proportions and in the grand contours of the heads.

    In Cave 17, occurs the subject reproduced in colours in the frontispiece, from my water- colour copy. The size of the original is about seven feet by five. I have unfortunately failed to discover what incident is illustrated. The picture is one of those darkened and spoiled by varnish. At the top and bottom especially it is difficult to make out the drawing, and the following details have been completed by me: the further eye of the king; the hand and mouth of the lady with the flower; and the bill of the foremost goose. There is also a hole in the body of the man standing among the water plants. In copying, I had to discover the original beneath a veil of dust and clouding; portions of my copy must therefore be regarded as a statement of all that prolonged and careful observation can discover.

    By far the largest quantity of the painting at Ajantat is less than life-size, and consists of con- tinuous stories, such as we are accustomed to see in Mediaeval Italian wall decoration. These have been considered to be incidents from the life of Buddha, but they more apparently represent the doings of kings and the court-life of the time. The painting is, throughout, fine, scholarly work.

    The types of face are usually definitely Indian, and similar faces may be seen among the local population at the present time. They have aquiline

    1 The numbering merely indicates consecutive positions, and begins with what is, perhaps, the most recent work, 2 Burgess describes large subjects on the walls, 3 From a photograph by R. Puplick, Hyderabad, Deccan.

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  • The Frescos of Ajant '

    noses, very long, heavily lashed eyes, small chins and rather full mouths. There is in this group a strong tendency to the small 'lion' waist, and the seated figures of kings are posed like the later Hindu deities, but there is in the frescos a command of posture both of body and head which we rarely find in the later work. There is also an ideality in the faces which became almost too abstract in the divine types of later Hindu art, and was again forgotten by the Mahommedans, whose interest lay in portraiture.

    The feeling for expressive gesture in the hands is most noteworthy. Perhaps late Roman work can show similar action, but only Renaissance Italian the same grace of gesture. The type of hand favoured is long and narrow in the meta- carpus, with slender, taper fingers and small nails. Among the peasants at Ajanti a very curiously long metacarpus is sometimes met with.

    I am not acquainted with any other school of painting except the Egyptian, where a dark skin is taken as the normal type. The consequence of this is that relief is almost entirely given to the heads by means of their local colour, rather than by light and shade. Most of the faces are a sort of red- dish brown and tell as dark upon the background. A favourite contrast is that of a king with pale and yellowish flesh opposed to the bluish black tones of the queen at his side ; or the complexions are reversed. In the fresco represented in the accompanying coloured illustration' there is quite an assemblage of race types-black, fair, brown, red and yellowish brown. Frequently, however, in the original, the flesh colour has worn away leaving only the terra-verde under-painting, as has happened frequently in early Italian pictures.

    I have already alluded to several styles and classes of painting in Caves I and 9, 16 and 17. There are, besides, later developments of the narra- tive style of Cave 17, which we find in Caves I and 2. These are (I) a more emphatic and stylis- tic manner, with more formalism in the drawing, more action and less tenderness ; (2) a more popu- lar, lively and forcible dramatic narrative, with more incidents and less idealism.

    In Cave 2 are three more, distinct styles : On both the side walls of a secondary shrine we find four or five elaborately posed, nearly nude life- size figures. These are sinuous in outline, quite Cimabuesque in proportion, attitude and general feeling; the arrangement suggests bas-relief. The

    late date of this cave indicates the period of the painting. In a similar shrine on the opposite side are corresponding decorations, and the figures on the main west wall might, but for the type, be an assemblage of Chinese sages; they are drawn with a magnificent bravura. There is not much colour left, but the somewhat caligraphic drawing in forcible blacks and reddish browns is so freely executed that one scarcely regrets the destruction which has laid bare such vital work. On a separate part of this west wall there is a subject of men and white geese in a water- lily pool, which, though closely linked to the earlier definitely Indian types of painting, sug- gests the freedom and at the same time the perfect balance of the very best Chinese period. The colour scheme is very beautiful--brilliant white, deep purple-brown, a vivid but rich malachite- green, with touches of a clear red.

    Further, in Cave 17 there are three paintings by one hand very different from all the rest. They are: (I) a hunt of lions and black buck; (2) a hunt of elephants; and (3) an elephant salaaming in a king's court-the companion picture to No. 2. These pictures are composed in a light and shade scheme which can scarcely be paralleled in Italy before the seventeenth century. They are nearly monochrome (warm and cool greys understood), except that the foliage and grass are dull green. The whole posing and grouping is curiously natural and modern, the drawing easy, light and sketchy, and the painting suggestively laid in with solid brush-strokes-in the flesh, not unlike some examples of modern French painting. The animals-horses, elephants, dogs and black buck -are extremely well drawn.

    The technique adopted, with perhaps some few exceptions, is a bold, red line-drawing on the white plaster. Sometimes nothing else is left. This drawing gives all the essentials with force or delicacy as may be required, and with knowledge and intention. Next come a thinnish terra-verde monochrome showing some of the red through it; then the local colour; then a strengthening of the outlines with blacks and browns giving great decision, but also a certain flatness; last a little shading if necessary. There is not very much definite light and shade modelling, but there is great definition given by the use of con- trasting local colour and of emphatic blacks and whites.

    4See frontispiece,

    I38

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    GAUTAMA BUDDHA (?) FRESCO

    IN CAVE I. AT AJANTA

    THE FRESCOS OF AJANTAN

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    Article Contentsp. 136p. 137p. 138p. [139]p. [134]

    Issue Table of ContentsThe Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 17, No. 87 (Jun., 1910), pp. i-iv+134-190Front Matter [pp. i-188]Exhibitions Open during JuneSales during JuneEditorial ArticleKing Edward VII [pp. 135-136]

    The Frescos of Ajant [pp. 134+136-139]Notes on Italian Medals-IX. Francesco di Giorgio and Federigo of Urbino [pp. 142-146]Notes on a Tudor Painter: Gerlach Flicke-II [pp. 147-149]The Nel Paton Collection of Arms and Armour, Now in the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh-I [pp. 148+152-155+157-158]Notes on Pictures in the Royal Collections-XVI. The Equestrian Portraits of Charles I by van Dyck-I [pp. 159-160]Daniel Mytens in England [pp. 160-163]Two Seicento Porcelain Bowls [pp. 163-165+169]A Modern Jeweller [pp. 168-171+173-174]Notes on Some Portraits of the Early Netherlands School. Three Portraits of the House of Burgundy [pp. 174-175+177]Bastien Lepage's Portrait of Sir Henry Irving [pp. 178-179]Affidavits concerning the Wax Bust of Flora [pp. 178+181-183]Art Books of the MonthReview: untitled [pp. 183-184]Review: untitled [pp. 184-185]Review: untitled [p. 185]Review: untitled [pp. 185-186]Review: untitled [pp. 186-187]Review: untitled [p. 187]Review: untitled [p. 187]

    Art in Germany, Austria and Switzerland [pp. 189-190]An Exhibition of Ancient Spanish Pottery and Porcelain in Madrid [p. 190]Back Matter