TRIFORTUM OF CHAITYA, No. 19.—AJUNTA.
THIS and the three following views represent four different portions of the triforium belt of the Cave No. 19, and form as rich a piece of sculptured decoration as is to be found in any Buddhist cave in India, though many may be purer and in better taste.
It is also interesting as illustrating the process of change from painting to carving which took place in India as in the middle ages in our own country, and probably also in Greece. The Romanesque architects left all their masonry plain in great flat surfaces as in Cave No. 10. The Gothic artists, on the contrary, trusted very little to colour, but depended chiefly on relief for their shadow and effects.
So far as can be made out, the subjects painted in Cave No. 10 were very much the same as those represented here, but have perished in consequence of the less durable materials in which they were executed.
28
