Page:Hindu Art - its Humanism and Modernism.djvu/22

 Greek Apollos are not the creations of subjective, the so-called yogic or meditative experience? In what respects are the figures of the Hindu Buddhas and Shivas more idealistic? Polykleitos, for instance, dealt with abstract humanity, ideals, or "airy nothings" in the same sense as the artists of the Goopta period ( 300-600) or Dhiman and Vitapala of the Pala period (780-1175) in India. Nowhere has a sculptured image, bas relief, or colored drawing been completely "photographic." Art as such is bound to be interpretative or rather originative; and identification of the artist's self with his theme is the sine qua non of all creative élan, in science as in art.

We have to recognize, moreover, that saints and divinities are not the exclusive themes of art work in India.