INDIAN ART
Intrusion of Western ideas; unfortunate result. Royal
palaces. Carving and balustrades; graceful domestic
utensils; their high polish. Native jewellery; beautiful
examples in villages. Incongruous pictures from Europe.
Indian oil paintings; effect of Christianity on Indian art;
wall decorations. Women's taste in colour.
Indian art is sadly degenerating through the intrusion of inferior
Western designs. Modern houses in most Indian cities lack the artistic
grace which distinguishes many of the old houses of wealthy people.
Part of the beauty of many ancient dwellings in Poona City is to be
found in their admirable proportions. Modern houses in India are often
built in a pseudo-Gothic style, with barbarous innovations in the
shape of base metal-work and glaring coloured glass, and in which all
sense of proportion has been hopelessly lost.
[Illustration: A MODERN HOUSE IN POONA CITY, BUILT BY ONE OF THE
INDIAN CLERGY.]
Some of the modern palaces of Indian Rajahs are built and furnished in
this style, at an immense cost, and with most incongruous results.
Whereas many of the old palaces, and those of northern India in
particular, afford beautiful examples of royal residences, well
adapted to the needs of Indians, and yet capable of being modified
for the use of modern-minded rulers who have adopted some of the
household arrangements of the West. Sir Swinton Jacob has shown in the
fairy-like palace which he built at Jeypore, but which internally you
find exactly suited to the requirements of a modern museum, how
possible it is to adapt Indian architecture to present-day needs.
There is a good deal of carving, effectively placed and graceful in
design and skilfully executed, both on the outside and inside of old
houses in the City of Poona; and the balustrades that form the front
of the narrow verandahs, which run along so many of the houses with
happy effect, afford charming specimens of what the turner's craft can
accomplish. But nowadays ironwork, such as adorns a cheap bedstead,
more often than not is substituted for the graceful balustrade, and
some tawdry decoration, or coarsely-cut stone corbel, takes the place
of the picturesque carved woodwork.
The graceful outline of pots and pans used in Indian households has
often been remarked upon, and happily at present there are no signs of
degeneration in this department of domestic life. The traditional
shapes still hold their ground; and even quite common utensils, made
of coarse earthenware, are pleasing to look at. The more costly brass
and copper vessels in ordinary daily use are delightful examples of
how much beauty can be got out of an artistic outline, even when there
is an entire absence of ornamentation. In the midst of a vast amount
of apparent disregard for cleanliness, there are certain matters about
which a Hindu is excessively particular. The metal cups and pans must
be polished up to the highest pitch of perfection, and though the
Hindu woman will take the dust or mud of the street for her polishing
powder, the result of her labours is that the vessels shine
brilliantly. They are the more beautiful because, in order that
cleanliness may be assured by the smooth, unbroken surface, they are
quite unadorned.
It has sometimes been discussed whether the specimens of old Indian
brass in museums should be polished or not, and some collectors
carefully preserve the old tarnish. It would be impossible in the
English climate to keep the objects continually bright, without
infinite labour; but it is well to remember, in considering the
artistic merits of any brazen article, that its original normal
condition was one of high polish.
Native jewellery is also being influenced for the worse by the
infusion of Western ideas. The Indian workers in gold and silver are
apt now to imitate the design of the cheap jewellery imported from
Europe, and they are not aware that their own traditional designs are
really much the most beautiful. Many of the chains and necklaces and
bracelets worn by villagers, both male and female, are the best
examples of unadulterated Indian art, because modern ideas and shapes
have not yet reached them; or, if they see some of these new devices
when they come to give their order to the goldsmith in the city, they
are still conservative enough to prefer the designs of their
forefathers. There are quaint and ingenious devices for fastening the
necklaces, and part of the charm of the primitive handiwork is its
individual character, shown in a certain roughness and want of rigid
symmetry.
In the houses of the more old-fashioned wealthy Hindus, in their big
reception-room, only rarely used, may be seen curious examples of the
mistakes which may be made so easily when introducing objects of art
from another country without adequate knowledge. Pictures from
England, interspersed with mirrors, form the chief decoration on the
walls of many of these saloons. They are hung almost touching each
other, very high up, like the "sky-ed" line of the Royal Academy, but
with nothing on the walls below, and they often present a most curious
jumble: a few good engravings; gaudy pictures, first issued as
advertisements; portraits of persons, known and unknown; worthless
prints in gorgeous frames; and a picture with some merit, stuck all
awry in a frame which does not belong to it.
In the houses of a younger generation you will see large oil paintings
by modern Indian artists, in heavy gilt frames and properly hung,
although still rather higher than is usual with us. Some are family
portraits; some are scenes from the histories of the gods. The colours
used are exceedingly brilliant, and the picture itself is often
painted on a very bright background. The drawing, which used to be the
defective part of Indian pictures, is much improving now that drawing
has become a regular part of the education of the Indian boy.
It is rather difficult to judge of the artistic value of a picture
painted in a style so unlike Western models. But on the whole one is
led to think that the brilliant colours are suited to the country, and
that they are blended with astonishing taste, considering the extreme
difficulty of blending happily hues of such a pronounced character. If
only the study of Western examples helps to purify the Indian style
without destroying its individuality, one would hope that Indian
artists will eventually produce pictures which will have a great charm
of their own.
Their mythology for the most part only supplies them with gods whose
traditional form is either grotesque, or repulsive, or sensual. But
when Christianity has been accepted, and incorporated into the lives
of the people, the wide field for artistic and religious effect which
will then open out will give new scope, and one may expect some very
striking results when familiar scenes of sacred story are depicted by
the Eastern pencil and brush.
Indians are fond of decorating the outside whitewashed walls of their
temples and houses with mural paintings. They often present a quaint
mixture of hunting-scenes, and animals and gods, and soldiers and
Indians and Europeans. One such fresco, on the wall of the house of
the headman of Yerandawana village, is a most comical reproduction of
the garden front of Windsor Castle, taken from an _Illustrated London
News_, but embellished with many Indian characteristics. The purely
decorative part of these wall pictures is often graceful and
harmonious, and one can look forward to the day when the Christian
Indian artist will joyfully decorate, in his own traditional style,
the bare white walls of the village Church of St Crispin, and
beautiful saints and angels will take the place of the dethroned gods.
The, often richly coloured, garments of the Indian woman, whether poor
or rich, are always in perfect taste and harmony; even the Parsee
ladies, who boldly use colours of astonishing brilliancy in their
dresses, seem to be able to do so without producing that amazing
discord of colour which greets the traveller from the East as he comes
back Westwards into the streets of a European city.