Ajant Frescoes

Author(s): Robert Ross

Source: The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 29, No. 160 (Jul., 1916), pp.
154-155+158-161
Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/860247
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An Italian Lacquered Table of the 17th Century

The pattern is without relief and all the details
are carried out with the utmost delicacy of touch.
The whole production differsboth in workmanship
as well as in design from the usual European
lacquerwork, above-mentioned, which is usually
coarse in execution and in which figures,buildings
and landscapes almost invariably occur. The
work presents, at first sight, a somewhat Persian
or Arab appearance. This is due to a certain
similarity which the bands of gilt scrollwork bear
to the gilt arabesques on a black or coloured
ground found on painted caskets and other small
objects made in Venice during the I6th century.
Closer inspection, however, reveals the fact that
the source of inspirationof the whole is none other
than Chinese. Yet the model for the design
must not necessarily be sought for among objects
in oriental lacquer; but it is more probable that
painted or woven silks, wall-papers and books of
designs which were then becoming popular furnished the models.
Some admirable specimens of Chinese wallpaper in a house at Wottonunderedge, in
Gloucestershire, are described by Mr. A. G. B.
Russell in the 7th volume of The Burlington
Magazine (p. 309). A comparison of the tabletop with the illustrations which accompany Mr.
Russell's article reveals the same trees and
flowering shrubs, the same pheasants, cranes and
richly plumaged birds, and the same ducks, hares

and other animals. Though the Chinese details

have been here to a certain extent Europeanized,
they retain their oriental character,and very considerableskill has been displayed in adaptingthem
to suit the decorative scheme of the table. Wallpapers similar to that at Wottonunderedge were
carried by the Dutch and English merchantmen
to Amsterdamand London, and thence imported
to central Europe and particularlyto Italy, where
they doubtless served as models for the lacquer
artist who was responsible for the decoration of
the table. It is probable that the date of its
execution is about the last quarter of the 17th
century.
Mr. Kendrickhas drawn my attentionto the very
interesting likeness between certain details of the
lacquered design and the fine English chinoiserie
tapestryby John Vanderbankwhich was acquired
by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1910.1
This panel was woven at Soho duringthe last years
of the 17th or the early part of the I8th century.
It is therefore about the same date as the table,
and exhibits many of the same features. The most
remarkable of these are the scroll-work borders,
which are of strikingsimilarity to the delicate bands
that play so prominent a part in the ornamental
design of the table.
1
Victoria and Albert Museum Portfolios, Tapestries, Part I,
No. 5. Catalogue of Tapestries in the Victoria and Albert
Museum, p. 23, No. 5.

AJANTA FRESCOES*
BY ROBERT ROSS

HE letterpress of art publications is

proverbiallydull, even when important
or essential. The India Society, however, has falsified an old calumny in
which there was much terrible truth.
With superb reproductions (due to the skill of
Mr. Emery Walker and the Oxford University
Press) here is issued a libretto hardly less interesting than the copies of the Ajanta frescoes
executed by Lady Herringham and her talented
assistants. Such excellent reading is rare at all
times, and some of us will regret there is not more
of it. For those unfamiliar with Buddhist
mythology, concise little versions of the Jatakas,
or nativity stories, identified as being illustrated
in the Ajantftcaves, will be especially welcomed.
A generous note by the editor emphasizes how
much is owed to the liberality and patience of
*
and monoAjanta Frescoes, being reproductions in colour
chrome of frescoes in some of the caves at Ajanta after copies
taken in the years 1909-1911, by Lady Herringham and her
assistants ; with introductory essays by various members of the
India Society. Imnperial4to (15 by II inches), ed. limited to
at Four Guineas net
60o copies, of which 350 only are for salein
colour, 27 in monoeach. The portfolio comprises 15 plates
chrome, I in collotype, and 28 pages of introductory matter.
Humphrey Milford (Oxford University Press).

predecessors whose copies were destroyed by fire

in 1866 and 1885--a sequence of ill luck recalling
that which pursuedthe formerowners of a mummy
at the British Museum. Sir Wilmot Herringham
describes his brilliant wife's three visits to the
caves between 19o6 and 1911. His description of
a wonderful site is too fascinating not to quote :
These temples are hewn out of the solid hill which forms
one side of a romantic valley thirty-four miles south of
on the line to
Jalgaon, about 200 miles from Bombay of
many of the
Calcutta. . . . Between the columns
must be caretemples are hung great nests of bees, which
in the
fully humoured to prevent dangerous hostilities ; and
the rock
deep recesses gibbering bats crawl sidling along their
cencornices unaware that the concentrated stench of
turies of occupation is their formidable defence against
man's intrusion. Standing on the terrace, you look down
on the right,
upon the river bed curving away to a waterfall
and beyond it rises a sloping, rocky hill covered with
scrub. In the rains the river becomes a mighty torrent,
but in winter it dwindles to a stream with a few pools in it.
Green parrots fly across it in the sunshine; monkeys,
boars, and an occasional panther haunt it ; black buck feed
in the valley. Everywhere on the banks are long bottleour long-tailed
shaped birds' nests something like those of
tit. It is a wild and beautiful place.

A place one would certainly like to see, as Pater

said of another shrine.
From Lady Herringham, the accomplished
painter and copyist, an expert in all primitive

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(A) " THE QUEISTIONS OF SARIPUTRA ", CAVE XVII, WALL OF ANTECHAMBER,
AJANTA FRESCOES ", PL. XXII (24)

LEFT CORNER.

FROM A WVATER-COLOURDRA\VIN(G BY SYAD) AHMAD

AJANTA FIRESCOES
PLATE I

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AND KINDRED IN THE JUNGLE.

(B) MATRIPOSHAKA JATAKA; THE ELEPHANT RETURNS TO HIS MOTHER
"4AJANTA FRESCOES ", PL. XXI (23)
FROM A COPY IN TEMPERA BY LADY HERRINGHAM.
CAVE XVII.

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(C) DETAIL OF " THE BODHISATTVA AVALOKITESVARA,

LEFT OF ANTECHAMBER.
FROM A XVATER-COLOUR COP
AJANTA FRESCOES ", PL. XXXII (35)
DI)IN.

Ajantd Frescoes
mediums, we have valuable though rather sketchy
observations on the history and character of the
Ajanta frescoes. Influenced too perhaps by Pater,
she shocks advanced archaeology by advocating repairs, for copies at least, of the mutilated
antique. Where predecessorshave shown blemishes
"we have thought it advisable for the sake of the
beautyof the composition and of intelligibilityto fill
up the smaller holes." Without any claim myself
to be an archaeologist, I think this was an entire
mistake, though it is eloquently defended by Mr.
Rothenstein. The value of the copies is sacrificedto
the undoubted charm of the colour reproductions.
I believe archaeologistswould support my contention. Very important is the impression recorded
by Lady Herringham that the Ajanta walls-were not so much surfaces to be
decorated as spaces on
which legends might be depicted for the identification of
the devout.

If this statement is correct, as one feels sure it is,

let us hope that late 19th-centurynonsense about
pure or mere decoration (based on a French misinterpretationof Japaneseart) is finally disposed of.
The dates of the frescoes range, Lady Herringham
tells us, from 450 to 650 A.D. It is a trifle disappointing to find that no special dates are hazarded
in the table of plates for the paintings reproduced.
Reference is merely given to a volume of Mr.
Vincent Smith. We learn there are twenty different kinds of painting ; but, alas, we are afforded
no word on a subject which is Lady Herringham's
own-that of the mediums employed in the
original. Nor does Mr. Rothenstein, artist and
art critic, tell us anything of the technique. One
hesitates to differ from so learned an authority as
Lady Herringham, who practised the recipes of
Cennino Cennini long before visiting Ajantt, but
her assertion "the drawing is on the whole like
medicevaldrawing" appears to me quite unsupported by the copies. Sometimes it resembles
and 18th-century Indo-Persian work; at
I7th Russian
others
eikon-painting of the late 17th
and early I8th century, where an earlier tradition
is affected or copied, rather than employed from
real conviction. Sometimes there is an undoubted resemblance to Gauguin, but a Gauguin
not unconscious of an academic tradition left
behind. And there is not a little which recalls
G6r6me. All wall-painting not executed in oil or
spirit varnish is apt to appearmediaevalin a superficial way. Even Tiepolo's frescoes at Villa
Valmarnapossess a severity unassociated with his
genius. So, too, modern wall-painting, whether
good or bad, may seem to futuregenerations older
than contemporary works on canvas. The most
alert eye and brain are often tricked in contemplating newly revealed antiquity.
Miss Larcher, one of the skilled assistants contributes an all too brief note on the method of
taking the copies. She hints at a disappointment
which the frescoes produce on the visitor-a dis-

appointment which Mr. Binyon seems to have

experiencedwhen he saw these copies. His attitude
is implied with poetic delicacy when he says that
the frescoes "appear more allied to western than
eastern art". Those who know his predilection
for oriental art will hardly be deceived by his invocation of Giotto and the Lorenzetti,or his graceful retirementfrom the discussion in favour of Mr.
Rothenstein, "who has seen Ajanta with his own
eyes-the eyes of an artist". Not here, O Apollo,
is what he seems to be saying to himself. The
eyes, or at least the spectacles,are those, not merely
of an artist but a keen politician, a critic and
propagandist who wields tongue and pen with as
much skill as pencil or brush. Tolstoi's story of
the two old men who went on a pilgrimageto the
Holy Sepulchre is irresistibly recalled. Mr.
Rothenstein's vigorous little sermon from the
fount might have been delivered without going to
Ajanta at all. Its subject is the attitude of modern
patrons to modern art,and the approachof certain
contemporary painters to the visible world. At
Ajanta he finds the precedent embalming the
principle.
Neglecting the rich treasures we could still obtain from
living craftsmen, we have during the last generation ransacked the world for examples of the art of the past, .
In spite of the ruinous condition of the wall-paintings we
must account it good fortune that the small interest hitherto
felt in Indian fine art, as well as the great difficulty of the
undertaking, has happily prevented the attempt to carry any
of these paintings from the walls.

The prospect of Indian old masters swelling the

ranks of their European peers as further rivals to
the modern painter is one to be deleted at once.
The moral of Ajanta is for him plain. Representative art is that which has been practised by saint
and sage. Let the artist,he thinks, concern himself
with the material things of life and the spiritual
will follow as a matter of course. At Ajanta we
findthe artist unconsciously expressing that wise element in
Hindu (sic) religion which insists on a man first living the
life of a householder, providing for his children and performing the common social obligations before he can give
himself up completely to his spiritual needs.

Mr. Rothenstein is making a plea for genre painting though he may not intend it; he makes it
wittily and prettily. The expertarchaeologistmust
decide how far he is justified in finding at Ajanta
illustration for his text. The subjects, we are
reminded elsewhere, have in many instances never
been identified. But on an important question of
fact, irrelevantto aestheticsor painting, the legend
of the Buddha whether historical or fabulous is
the apotheosis of disdain for material things and
neglect of domestic duties-a disdain which is the
common denominator of Buddhism, Christianity,
and Greek philosophy. When Mr. Rothenstein
blithely observesIt is this perfect combination of material and spiritual
energy which marks the great periods of art. At other
times the balance is lost and one or the other is insisted
upon with too marked an emphasis,

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Frescoes
AJant
are
to ask which

periods he considers
you
tempted
the
Whatever
great.
import of Ajanta painting
may be in the history of art it cannot be brought
home to us by invoking mediaevalism. Judaism,
Mahomedanism, and Protestantism may support
the ethics and aesthetics of Mr. Rothenstein;
not early or mediaevalChristianity. While everyone will sympathize with the modern artist
clutching at any human and domestic element
in the Ajantd paintings because rare in monumental and religious art, we cannot be too
cautious about accepting the manifestation on its
face value. Some Japanese Buddhists have, I
think, a principle by which mysterious truths are
presented "under obvious representation suitable
for obtuse minds"; it is called h-3ben. An innocent gentleman cutting his toe-nails, for all the
world like something at the New English Art
Club by Mr. Augustus John, may represent an incarnation of the Great Being; gustation of the
Divine Immanence; or the mystic union of
nameless gods.
The contribution of Mr. F. W. Thomas, if less
amusing, has more weight and more information.
It is an archaeologist,not an art critic, who speaks.
From him we learn that the importance of Ajanta
is, that here alone, excepting the caves at Bagh, in
Maliva, are any considerable remains of fresco
painting. He warns us that--

The reproductionsin this volume must be regarded

franklyas fragmentshaving a higher value for the purpose
of artisticappreciationthan on the archaeologicalside. ...
The paintingin the caves has an exclusivelyreligioussignificance. .

. Among the scenes we should distinguish first

of all the traditionalevents in the earthly life of Gautama

Buddha,the most importantbeing the birth : the abandonment of home.

Mr. Thomas cannot help warning the reader

again against accepting too implicitly the art
criticism of even his distinguished collaborators.
Before we can judge of a particular Buddha . . . as a

work of art we must, if we are to preclude self-deception,

ascertain how much in him is typical, conventional or
symbolical; how much is to be attributed to the living

imagination of the artist. And the same applies . . to

otherfiguresand even the decorativeformswhen they have

a symbolicalvalue.

Mr. Thomas, like his namesake, is a doubting

apostle. I have endeavouredas a reviewer to give

an account of this delightful and sumptuous publication. In all proper humility I may perhaps
be allowed to record the impression which the
reproductions leave on eyes unequipped by Mr.
Binyon's experience and scholarship, and on a
mind unhouseled like that of Mr. Rothenstein by an
inspection of the originals at Ajanta. The copies
appear to vary in merit, particularly those of the
native assistants. It is easy, however, to pick out
their work from that of Lady Herringham and
Miss Larcher without reference to the table of
I may think some of the copies are
plates.
possibly improvements on the originals, because

of Lady Herringham'sadmissions. On comparing

Plate xxII, the work of Mr. Syad Ahmad, with the
photograph of the same fresco reproduced as
Plate XLII(56), the balance is greatly in favour of
Mr. Syad Ahmad. The original must in any case
be rather a tiresome piece of hieraticism. Then
drawing and colouring in different caves attain
different levels of excellence, due, no doubt, to
difference of date and preservation. Plates xxI
and xxvII illustrate the most charming of the
Jatakas,and seem happily enough among the best
of the frescoes. Veritablepredecessorsof Gauguin
are revealed in Plates IX and xxxII;

they are

among the most beautiful,at least in reproduction.

Strictly aesthetic appreciation being permitted,
may I without undue temerity question whether
enthusiasm of travellers has not exaggerated the
Ajantafrescoes as works of art. Since Mr.Binyon
invites us, let us compare these copies even with
inferior reproductions of Giotto and Lorenzetti.
How poor they seem i Carpaccio too is a much
better illustratorthan any of these Buddhist craftsmen. Or take the lovely fragmentsof Pisanello at
Verona (in one of the Arundel Society prints),
and the Ajanta frescoes will seem insignificant.
Then how would they endure before some of the
Japanese and Chinese primitive masterpieces?
Mr. Binyon wisely saves them from the ordeal.
Surrender and prostration to all oriental art,
because fairly early in date, irrespective of any
relative merit, are in any case errors of fashionable
criticism. Europe has articulated in marble,
fresco, canvas and masonry that which Asia has
never attempted with any success whatever.
One further suggestion crosses my unlearned
vision. Are the Ajantafrescoes really primitive,as
Lady Herringhamclaims some of them to be ? In
the reproductions I do not find much to support
the theory; particularlyconsidering the slow development and decay of all oriental schools. The
domesticity so much admired by Mr. Rothenstein
appears to be of a very sophisticated kind. The
naturalism does not seem to me the discovery
by the artist of a new facility, such as you get in
true primitive art. Here are tired and sometimes
unskilful hands, such as you find in Roman and
Hellenistic work at Pompeii. Another striking
feature at Ajanta is the sensual conception of the
figuregroups; the languid feministic treatmentof

both male and female figures, alien to all primitive

art, whether oriental or western, even when frankly
pornographic. At Ajanta we are nearer to Giulio
Romano than the Lorenzetti. Where you think
there is something primitive at first, you become
persuaded that it is archaistic, not archaic. Take
Plates xxxII and xxIr, for instance: Gauguin and
Mabuse perhaps, but not Giotto or Gentile da
Fabriano. I should like to know the opinion of
Mr. Thomas on this point. He is significantly
silent except when he says drily that the costume

I6o

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Aj4antcaFrescoes
of the Buddha is copiedfrom the LateranSophocles
-surely singular among "incunabula " of primitives. When Macaulay's New Zealander comes
to excavate the House of Lords and takes away,
let us say, copies of Blucher meeting Wellington

and perhaps a precious fragment of Landseer's

Monarch of the Glen, let us hope they may not
deceive the Anzacs in regard to the conditions of
painting as practised by Thames-side between
1616 A.D. and 1916 A.D.

PROFESSOR VENTURI ON QUATTROCENTO PAINTING

BY TANCRED BORENIUS
HE publication of the fourth part of
the seventh volume of Professor Venturi's " Storia dell' arte italiana" completes the section of this monumental
work which is devoted to 15th-century
painting. Of the magnitude of the task now
carried out by Prof. Venturi a bare statement of
dates and figures will suffice to convey a vivid

impression : Part I, published in 1911, 832

with 496 illustrations; part II, 1913, 858
with 656 illustrations; part III, 1914, 1,175
with 892 illustrations; and part Iv, 1915,

della Gatta), and in Umbria itself (Perugino and

his followers); the activity of the young Raphael
is dealt with at the end. In part III the author
proceeds to trace the history of North Italian
painting, treating first of Padua as a centre of art
and of Francesco Squarcione and his pupils. The
life and work of Andrea Mantegna having been
dealt with, Prof. Venturi treats of the numerous
artists under his influence in Venetia and Lombardy, and goes on to discuss the Ferrareseschool
of the second half of the quattrocento and the
various schools in the Emilia affected by the
example of the Ferraresemasters; the concluding
chapter is devoted to the early activity of Correggio. Part IV opens with a discussion of the
art of Antonello da Messina, which is followed by
a general survey of the schools of Southern Italy,
Sicily and Sardinia; and the author then proceeds
to complete his account of North Italian quattrocento painting, discussing the schools of Venice
and Venetia, of Lombardy,Liguriaand Piedmont.
The general character of Prof. Venturi's great
work is now too well known to make it necessary
for me to dwell on this point at any great length;
as all students of Italian art can testify, every one
of these volumes, immediately on its appearance,
takes its place on the shelf of our most frequently
consulted works of reference,becoming the constant companion of our studies and investigations.
The rare completeness of the author's mastery of
the artistic materials of his study-whether in
Italy or elsewhere-to which the previous volumes
have accustomed us, meets us too in that now
under notice, and one receives from it perhapsan
even more vivid impression than before of the
author's grasp of the intricate geographical subdivisions of his subject-matter,of the currents of
influence and ties of affinity between the various
regions of Italy--an aspect of the problem of
Italian art history which it is perhaps possible
only for an Italian to do full justice to. A very
valuable feature of the book, now as before, is
the bibliographical notes given at the beginning
of the sections dealing with the various schools
and artists, and showing a most remarkablecommand of the literature on the subjects under
discussion, notably of the countless little known
local Italian publications--short monographs,
"Nozze" brochures, or articles in the various

pages,
pages,
pages,
I,i53
been

pages, with 817 illustrations. Part I having

briefly noticed in these columns by another reviewer shortly after its publication,' it is proposed
in the present article to review in its entirety
Prof. Venturi's treatment of one of the most
fascinating and important chapters in the whole
history of art.
It will be well first to give a brief indication of
the general disposition of the material in the
present volume. Part I opens with a discussion
of various personalities of the Florentine school
of the early 15th century,notably Lorenzo Monaco,
Fra Angelico, Masolino and Masaccio. Having
then treated of the Italian representativesoutside
Florence of the great internationallate Gothic art
movement, the author goes on to trace the
development of Florentine painting as evinced in
the works of the "scientific naturalists" of the
first generation and of their contemporaries of
different tendencies. Piero della Francesca, the
Sienese school of the 15th century, and various
Umbrian masters (Boccati, Alunno, Bonfigli,
etc.) are then dealt with, and the concluding
chapter is devoted to Florentine painting of the
second half of the quattrocento, ending up with a
consideration of the early work of Leonardo da
Vinci. The principal theme treated in part II is
the diffusion of the artistic principles of Piero
della Francesca in Central Italy; one after the
other, the author discusses the artists affected,
directly or indirectly, by the example of Piero,
in the Romagna (Melozzo, Palmezzano), in the
Montefeltro (Bramante, Giovanni Santi and
others), in Rome and Latium (Lorenzo da Viterbo,
Antoniazzo Romano), in the region of Tuscany
adjoining Umbria (Signorelliand Don Bartolomeo
SSee The Burlington Magazine, Vol. XIX(1911); p. 110osq.

"Atti", "Archivi " or "Bollettini ".

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To choose
I61