Content area
Full Text
Important work from the Gupta period in India is examined with an eye toward the Eurocentric slant of much extant commentary. It is argued that notions such as the development of a "Renaissance" fail to do justice to the motivating factors behind the work. Work by Rowland and Kramrisch is cited, and the Buddha statuary of the Gupta era is subjected to particular analysis.
Most of the available criticism on the art of India focuses on the Gupta period as a high point in Indian art. The various known sculptures of the Buddha and similar figures become, themselves, exemplars of a tradition, and the work of the Gupta period is frequently contrasted with other styles that are thought to be more derivative, such as the Gandhara.1 Among commentators whose work on India is at all well-known, this era stands out, especially for the formality of line of its many Buddha sculptures, some of which have become among the most renowned pieces of the art of India available in museums around the world.
But what is remarkable about a great deal of the tradition of the art of India, and what continues even in a contemporaneous vein, is an attempt to try to articulate the various styles of regions and time periods in terms of Western art history. We are often told, for example, that the Mughal miniatures bear comparison with Mannerist pieces; in commentary on the Gandhara school, even though it is clear that Western influence is to be found, it is the Western, or Greek influence that predominates in criticism.2 It will be the argument of this paper that, more so perhaps than a number of other styles associated with South Asia, Gupta art has been subjected to an overabundance of Eurocentric commentary. The emphasis on clarity of line and stylistic features more typical of High Renaissance statuary prevents us from seeing key features of the work, and reinforces the notion-all too common in criticism of the art work of developing nations-that the given cultural style has not reached a high point of development unless it can favorably be compared to European work.
I
The notion of a tradition-and the concomitant notion of its reaching some sort of apex-would not be so important were...