Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/514

 44 8 CHALUKYAN STYLE. BOOK IV. carved with a minute elaboration of detail which can only be reproduced by photography, and may probably be considered as one of the most marvellous exhibitions of human labour to be found even in the patient East. It must not, however, be considered that it is only for patient industry that this building is remarkable. The mode in which the eastern face is broken up by the larger masses, so as to give height and play of light and shade, is a better way of accomplishing what the Gothic architects attempted by their transepts and projections. This, however, is surpassed by the western front, where the variety of outline, and the arrangement and subordination of the various facets in which it is disposed, must be considered as a masterpiece of design in its class. If the frieze of gods were spread along a plain surface it would lose more than half its effect, while the vertical angles, without interfering with the continuity of the frieze, give height and strength to the whole composition. The disposition of the horizontal lines of the lower friezes is equally effective. Here again the artistic combination of horizontal with vertical lines, and the play of outline and of light and shade, far surpass anything in Gothic art. The effects are just what the mediaeval architects were often aiming at, but which they never attained so perfectly as was done at Halebid. Before leaving Halebid, it may be well again to call atten- tion to the order of superposition of the different animal friezes, alluded to already, when speaking of the rock-cut monastery described by the Chinese Pilgrims (ante, p. 171). There, as here, the lowest were the elephants ; then the lions ; above these came the horses ; then the oxen ; and the fifth storey was made with shapes of pigeons. The oxen here is replaced by a conven- tional animal, and the pigeon also by a bird of a species that would puzzle a naturalist The succession, however, is the same, and, as mentioned above, the same five genera ol living things form the ornaments of the " moonstone " thresholds of the various monuments in Ceylon. Sometimes in modern Hindu temples only two or three animal friezes are found, but the succession is always the same, the elephants being the lowest, next above them are the lions, and then the horses, etc. When we know the cause of it, it seems as if this curious selection and succession might lead to some very suggestive conclusions. At present we can only call attention to it in hopes that further investigation may afford the means of solving the mystery. If it were possible to illustrate the Halebid temple to such an extent as to render its peculiarities familiar, there would be few things more interesting or more instructive than to institute a comparison between it and the Parthenon at Athens. Not