History of Indian and Eastern ArchitectureFergusson, James
History
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture
Fergusson, James
Architecture -- India; Architecture, Asian
Confining the argument as much as possible to the instances above
quoted, either it is that these Corinthian capitals are a local
development of forms the Greeks took with them to Bactria, or they were
executed under Western influence when the classical orders had lost
their original form, after the age of Constantine. We know perfectly the
history of the Corinthian capitals in Italy, in Greece, and in Syria,
between the ages of Augustus and Aurelian at all events (A.D. 270); and
we know that it requires a practised and well-educated eye to
distinguish between the capitals of the Pantheon of Agrippa and those
last executed at Baalbec or Palmyra. The entablatures show considerable
progress, but the capitals were so stereotyped that it is evident, if
any Greek or Roman artists had designed capitals in Gandhara during the
period just alluded to, we could predicate exactly what they would have
been. After Constantine, however, the design of the capitals went wild,
if the expression may be used. The practice of springing arches from
them, instead of their supporting horizontal architraves, required a
total change, and in the West it produced exactly the same effects that
we find in Gandhara. The capitals, for instance, in the churches of St.
Demetrius and that now known as the Eski Jouma at Salonica, both built
in the early part of the 5th century, are almost identical in design
with these;[218] and many in the churches in Syria and Asia Minor[219]
show the same “abandon” of design, though frequently in another
direction.
The presence of little cross-legged figures of Buddha among the foliage
of the capitals is another sign of a comparatively modern age. The first
prominent example of the practice, I believe, in classical art, seems to
be found in the Baths of Caracalla, at Rome (A.D. 312-330);[220] but it
certainly did not become common till long afterwards, and only general
in what may be called mediæval art.[221] It is not, however, so much in
the presence of figures of Buddha on these capitals that I would insist
on as an indication of age, as on their presence in the monastery at
all.
In the first place, I believe it is correct to state that no statue of
Buddha, in any of his conventional attitudes, has been found in India
executed as early as the Christian Era. Those on the façade at Karli and
in the western caves are avowedly insertions of the 4th or 5th centuries
or later. There are none belonging to the eastern caves; nor any found
at Buddh Gaya, Bharhut, or Sanchi; nor do I know of any one in India
that can be dated before A.D. 100. In these Gandhara monasteries they
are very frequent, and of a type which in India would be assumed to be
certainly as late as the 4th or 5th century; some of them very much
later.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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