CHAPTER IV.

INDIA AND CENTRAL ASIA.

Mystery Surrounding People.--History of its Art in great measure Unknown.--Questions of its Existence and Originality.--How they Arose.--The Brahmins.--Geographical Position.--Views of Early Travellers.--Later Investigations.--More Ancient Pottery.--Clay Used.--Knowledge of Glazing: Its Application to Architecture.--Glazed Bricks.--Terra-cotta.--Chronological Arrangement.--Porcelain: Its Decoration.--Use of Gold.--Siam.

The antiquity claimed for the Hindoos as a people cannot, unfortunately, be elucidated either by the help of such chronicles as the granite records of Egypt, the terra-cotta tablets of Babylon, or the writings of China. The history of Indian art has been surrounded by a more or less impenetrable mystery. Two questions accordingly arise as to its ceramic productions: firstly, Did India possess any knowledge of the plastic art? secondly--that question having been answered in the affirmative--Was it original or borrowed? These doubts, in all probability, arose from the success of the Brahminical endeavors to invest every branch of Hindoo knowledge with a veil of secrecy, and from the geographical position of Hindostan. Occupying a peninsula about half-way on the route by sea between Eastern and Western Asia, Africa, and Europe, it became the recognized mart for the exchange of mercantile commodities. European traders found in it a convenient halting-place, even before they fully realized its actual commercial importance. Similarly, on the north, it intercepted a portion of the overland traffic, and ultimately became the centre toward which gravitated the productions of Persia and Arabia on the west, and of China and Japan on the east.

Travellers who did not stop to examine things very closely, accordingly declared India a stranger to ceramic art. Recognizing its importance as an exchange, from the abundance of imports from abroad, they did not pierce the commercial conditions which hid its productiveness and originality. Later researches have shown not only that India was not dependent upon other countries, but that it had developed an exceptional skill in the application of porcelain to the embellishment of architecture. As if completely to subvert the statements of the first visitors to Hindostan, China, the great seat of the porcelain manufacture, has acknowledged its indebtedness to that country, and the extent to which it has imitated its styles. There is no reason for supposing that a country which had early shown a wonderful capacity for reaching the highest forms of architectural magnificence, and for executing work of the nicest delicacy in the precious metals and gems, lent to China alone its ideas of ceramic beauty. The absence of thorough investigation on the one hand, and the presence of a tendency to take refuge in secrecy in regard to both methods and results, rather than to court observation on the other, may, however, have had their effect in lessening the influence India might otherwise have exercised on the art. That she borrowed and adapted styles originating in both Persia and Japan, after her marts had been flooded with imports from these countries, there is every reason for believing, even when she preserved styles sufficiently distinctive to enable us to distinguish the foreign from the native work.

Of the more ancient forms of pottery, specimens exist which are upward of two thousand years old. The clay varies from red to a gray color, and the ornamentation, when used, is simple and chaste. A funeral urn of this class has a round body without decoration, short, thick neck, projecting lip, and is accompanied by a lid. Another, of the same red clay, instead of the rounded base of the former, has a wide, flat bottom. A band is drawn round the widest part of the body, from which it curves rapidly inward to the neck, and on this upper part, between the greatest circumference and the neck, a simple ornament is laid. Although rather clumsy in appearance, this urn does not lack a certain primitive symmetry.

Like the other ancient nations of which we have already treated, India was intimately acquainted with the processes of enamelling and glazing, and, better than that, brought a cultivated taste to bear upon their employment in both architecture and the decoration of pottery. Glazed bricks, of many colors, were used with great effect in the building of temples and other edifices. They are of much harder and finer material than the bricks of either Egypt or Babylonia. The application of colors and glaze to terra-cotta was productive of the most astonishing and beautiful effects. The specimens preserved of a monumental character substantiate the right of the Indian potters to a very high rank. Not only is the coloring of their terra-cotta friezes brilliant, but the floral and animal forms, introduced either for their symbolical significance or by way of ornament, are masterpieces of art.

Arranging these products chronologically, the wares belonging to the second or third century before our era will take precedence. The buildings in which glazed bricks were used bring us down to from five hundred to upward of a thousand years later. After them come the specimens of glazed terra-cotta. Subsequently a kind of faience was made which has been very generally ascribed to Persia, but which may, from the internal evidence supplied by a comparison with purely Indian work, be safely attributed to India. Lastly, there is the faience of the present time, so intimately allied with the more ancient in both ornamentation and the prevailing shapes, as to be confidently pronounced its legitimate successor. Flowers and ornaments, incised or in relief, and grounds of blue, green, or yellow, are designed and mingled in the most artistic and effective manner.

The porcelain of India has been ascribed, on the one hand, to Persia, and, on the other, to China or Japan, while a closer examination would have revealed the fact that, though having many qualities in common with them, it is yet radically distinct. It seems probable that in several processes which the Indian artist borrowed, he followed Japan, without allowing himself slavishly to copy. The art of India as represented in porcelain manifests itself in a high technical skill, in the most exquisite delicacy, and in a close attention to all the _minutiæ_ of detail. Indian figure-painting owes to these three qualities its superiority alike over those of Persia and of the extreme East. In the beauty consisting of delicacy and careful precision of finish, neither country makes even an approach to an equality with it. This truth is one, however, which can only be fully understood by actual comparison. A similarly painstaking care and conscientious literalness of interpretation characterize the floral ornamentation of Indian porcelain. Even when we find traces of Eastern inspiration in the Hindoo deep-blue or green, the Indian artist asserts his superiority in working out details. In many cases we detect more refined perception combined with a greater technical skill. A deep bowl has floral decoration in green, blue, and red, on a white ground, the flowers being alternately red and blue. Another has a ground of pale green, divided into sections by arches of gold, immediately under the outward curving lip. Upon this are laid larger sections of a rich red color, and filled with flowers. The contrasts are strong, and the effect is magnificent. In one respect the Indian artists are particularly skilful, and that is in the use of gold. It is employed generally with reserve, and always with rich effect.

[Illustration: Fig. 61.--Washington’s “Indian” Porcelain Vases. Deep blue and gold.]

A specimen of Indian porcelain (Fig. 61), of exceptional interest to Americans, as having once belonged to George Washington, formed part of the collection at Arlington House. It consists of a set of three vases, presented to Washington by Mr. Samuel Vaughan, of London. Their value, for our present purpose, is somewhat lessened by the fact that, though made in India, the vases were painted in London.

In Siam, a style common to that country with India is prevalent, and is the result of imitating _cloisonné_ enamel in porcelain. The practice has had one result in both countries. It has led to a comparison of the native porcelain with native work in metal, and the originality of the decoration of the former has thus been substantiated and its source explained.

[Illustration: Fig. 62.--Group of Chinese Porcelain. (From the Avery Coll.)]