Page:Hindu Art - its Humanism and Modernism.djvu/19

 Comparative art-history would indicate, however, that Hindu plastic art or drawing has not been the handmaid of theology to a far greater extent than the classical and medieval works of Europe. Is it not Greek mythology that we see embodied in the sculptures of Phidias? Similarly are not the Catholic and Russian paintings mere aids to the popularization of the Bible stories? Indeed, art has long been more or less "illustrative" of history, legends, traditions, and myths both in the East and the West.

We do not know much of the Greek paintings. But we know the legends in the drawings on the Greek vases of the fifth century In one the serpent is being strangled by Heracles, almost as if the hydra Kaliya is being quelled by Krishna; in another Theseus