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THE TRANSFORMATION OF NATURE IN ART
ANANDA K. COOMARASWAMY
Edited with an introduction
by KAPILA VATSYAYAN
1995, xxv+189 pp. notes,
gloss, bibl., ISBN: 81-207-1643-4: Rs 350 (HB)
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In the present work Coomaraswamy attempts to explain the
theory behind medieval European and Asiatic art, especially art in India. He further
supplements the Indian theory with that of the Chinese. The first principle of his
theories is that art does not exist for its own sake; it exists as a means to some
religious conditions or experience. The comparison with medieval European Art in
this respect is extremely illuminating. He further shows that both differ radically
from the Post Renaissance European art.
Coomaraswamy discusses the theory of art in Asia in the
first chapter and contends that the Indian artist did not seek an illusion of Nature,
rather he tried to create a truthful suggestion of the character of the subject.
Following chapters investigate through Indian texts the psychology of the Indian view of
art. And finally, the origin and use of images in India is discussed in the last
chapter.
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| ANANDA K. COOMARASWAMY a reputed
scholar on Indian art and culture was a man of prodigious learning, equally at home in
vedic, classical, mediaeval, European and Islamic literature. With a D.Sc. degree
from the University of London, he came to the field of art by way of science.
Conversant with about a dozen languages, he was an art critic, a historian, a philosopher
and metaphysician whose mind encompassed the sum total of the eastern and western
traditions of learning and thought. KAPILA
VATSYAYAN, a celebrated authority on Indian arts and culture, has been responsible
for establishing several bridges of communication between Indian and Western theories of
art, the literary, plastic and performing arts, and their theory and practice.
A prolific writer, her major publications include : Classical Indian
Dance in Literature and the Arts; The Theoretical Basis of Asian Aesthetics Traditions;
Indian theatre; The Multiple Tradition; Gita Govinda (6 Volumes); and The Square and the
Circle of the Indian Art.
She is presently the Academic Director of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. |
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